Leap of Faith
by A bag of plums
Summary: After the Battle of the Bands, Sunset Shimmer is ready to get back to her regular school life when shadowy individuals begin to appear at Canterlot High. Finding herself at the center of an ancient struggle for power, Sunset and her friends' only hope of discovering the truth may lie in a mysterious new student... one who is very good at avoiding her.
1. Prologue

The streets of Trottingham were no place for any self-respecting person to be in the middle of the night, but as Cobalt quietly slid out of a hidden side door in what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, his sense of self-respect was the last thing on his mind. Tightly grasping an attaché case in his left hand, the business suited man walked briskly down the deserted sidewalk.

As he passed the window of a closed barber's, Cobalt ran a hand through his navy blue hair and increased his pace. His breath came out in clouds, each puff of condensation tinted orange in the streetlamps.

Cobalt glanced back over his shoulder, scanning the street for any sign of life. When he found none, he slowed down and brought out a packet of cigarettes from an inside pocket, setting down the case to strike a match and light one. Smoking had always calmed Cobalt down and as the sweet, faintly cinnamon taste of the tobacco rolled over his tongue, Cobalt allowed himself to breathe, to collect himself.

There was really no reason to be so nervous, he mused. It wasn't as though he was in trouble with the boss, or that his task was particularly dangerous. Far from it. So why the devil was he sweating like a pig in summer and glancing over his shoulder every few seconds like there was someone out to get him?

Taking a long drag of his cigarette, Cobalt looked down at the case, sitting innocently next to his leg. It was fairly small, the size of a large laptop case with silver clasps and a sturdy looking combination lock. Its simple appearance, he knew, was a front for its contents: intelligence that could potentially give him and his organization a major edge over their competition.

Finishing his smoke, Cobalt once again took up the case and resumed walking, this time a little more leisurely than before. All he had to do was walk two blocks, get in his car, and then he would be home free-

"Hey! Hey, mister!"

Jumping, Cobalt's head swiveled around as he tried to locate the person calling out. It didn't take long; just ten feet ahead and leaning against a phone box was a young man with offensively purple hair, dressed in a worn looking pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt. He was holding a small packet in one hand and waving with the other.

"Hey mister! Got a light?"

Common sense told Cobalt to just ignore him. He's just a punk. You have places to be. You need to get home as soon as possible.

Only trouble was, this punk was directly on his path to his car, and there didn't really seem like there was any reason to say no…

Sighing, Cobalt dug out his box of matches and approached the young man, who grinned even wider as he held out a cigarette to light.

"Bit late to be taking a walk, old man," the youth remarked, exhaling smoke. "You seeing a mistress or something?" he laughed at his own joke, dropping ash over his sweatshirt.

Cobalt was nowhere near as amused. "Actually, I had a business meeting. What about you? Someone stand you up on a date?"

The young man gave Cobalt a wry smile. "Not bad, mister. 'S matter of fact though, I'm waiting for someone."

"Is that so?" inquired Cobalt distractedly.

There it was again. The uneasy feeling. His mother had often told him that he'd had a knack for smelling trouble, and this kid was reeking of it.

"I really must be going. Best of luck waiting for whoever it is you're waiting for." Gripping the case, the blue haired man suddenly felt a hand fall heavily on his shoulder.

"Hold up." The kid spun Cobalt around effortlessly and gave him a rather less jovial smile. The streetlight shone at them from his back, reflecting in the kid's eyes.

"Y-yes?" stammered the older man as he clutched the attaché case in front of himself like a shield.

For a moment, the youth simply eyed Cobalt as though he were in a butcher's and he was selecting a piece of choice meat.

Then he laughed and drawled, "Thanks for the light, mister." and walked off ahead into an alley with a hand raised in farewell.

It was only then that Cobalt realized that his knees were shaking and that he'd been holding his breath. He let it out, almost wishing that he had another cigarette between his lips but that soon passed. No, the sooner he was in his car, the better.

Gathering up the case and his courage, Cobalt resumed his walk to the parking lot around the corner. He reached into his pocket and readied his keys, gaining a crumb of confidence when his hands closed around the cool, familiar ring. He would make it. Get in, shut the door, start engine, drive home to a soothing cup of tea.

So focused was he on that happy thought that Cobalt failed to notice a tall, hooded figure leap off a rooftop behind him and land not two steps away from his heels. Nor did he see the silvery glint of a blade as it buried itself in the back of his neck.

* * *

><p>Frigid Night straightened up from his strike as the business suited man gasped and fell to his knees, then onto his face. The stab wound was small but deep and Night wasted no time in pulling a rag from inside his hooded coat to staunch the bleeding, pressing with both hands.<p>

At the same time, another figure alighted from the rooftops, a female with a long, off-white coat just like Frigid Night's and an indolent look on her lime green face. Taking the now dead Cobalt's feet in her hands, the two hauled the corpse into a cul-de-sac and into a deserted apartment. The wood paneled floor was stained and uneven, and the walls were cracked and peeling as though they hadn't seen a tenant in years. A rickety old table dominated the center of the room, positioned under the ceiling light.

In other words, perfect for their needs.

"Took your sweet time killing him," grunted Morning Blade, the woman. From her left arm hung the black attaché case, its silver clasps glinting in the dark.

Frigid Night rolled his eyes as they set their cargo down onto the floor. "I'd have gotten him sooner, if that kid hadn't asked him for a smoke. No witnesses, remember?"

"So just take down the kid too. Gang stabbings aren't exactly uncommon here, Night."

Frigid Night frowned and lowered his hood, revealing dark yellow skin and a mop of silver hair. "That's not how we do things, and you know it. Besides, we got the case, didn't we?"

He reached over to the wall and clicked a switch, flooding the room with stark white light. Morning Blade unhooked the case from her wrist while Frigid Night shut and locked the door.

The two eyed the case with no small degree of apprehension and hunger. Wordlessly, Morning Blade flicked her wrist out, eliciting a tiny snick as a short, thin blade eased out from the depths of her sleeve. She dug it into the lock while Frigid Night held the case still.

A dog barked outside. They ignored it and worked on, the silence broken only by the occasional mumbled swear from Morning.

Almost twenty minutes later the lock finally gave, pins and tumblers clattering to the tabletop as Morning's weapon broke through the last bastion of defense that the owner of the case had put up. She retracted her blade and lowered her hood, blowing a lock of sweaty white and green striped hair out of her face.

"Nineteen minutes and forty-three seconds," Frigid Night straightened up and stretched his fingers. "Not bad."

Morning Blade didn't answer, instead flipping the clasps on the case up and laying it open under the naked bulb.

For a moment neither of them spoke as they tried to comprehend what they were seeing.

Inside the case was a thick sheaf of papers, all held together with two heavy duty paperclips and tied up with twine. Laying on the top were four photographs, taken from what looked like a long distance lens and scribbled on with red ink.

The first one showed a building, a school from the looks of it. The front doors were missing, as was a large chunk of the façade. People, presumably students, could be seen in the hole as well as outside, but most notably, and outlined in a red circle, was a blurry orange shape that looked as though it was flying above the ground with wings.

The second photo was of the same building, but during the daytime and with far fewer people in it. The closer camera angle showed two young men, possibly high school boys, struggling with a wheelbarrow full of building debris and a taller girl with fiery yellow and red hair sitting dejectedly next to a partly repaired wall. She was also circled in red, with the word** important** scrawled next to it.

The third picture was noticeably different. It displayed, from a long way away, a sideways view of a stage, bleachers, and a grassy hill. The venue was packed with people, though the stage was only populated by three figures. A red circle highlighted the grassy hill where a white vehicle of some kind was parked. Seven people were standing around this vehicle, nearly all of them brandishing musical instruments and facing the stage. A familiar girl with red and yellow hair was there, this time dressed in a sleeveless top instead of a leather jacket. Once again, she was tagged with the word **important**.

The final photo appeared to be a newspaper clipping, as some of the surrounding text was still clinging to the picture. Seven high school girls struck a pose in front of the photographer, grinning from ear to ear and holding up a trophy. Their names were noted in the caption, but only one was underlined.

"Sunset Shimmer," read Frigid Night, his brow creased with confusion. "What in the world is going on here?"

"Maybe, just maybe, the Templars have some interest in this girl," remarked Morning Blade sarcastically and rifled through the rest of the papers. She cursed under her breath. "It's in code. Might take some time to… wait."

From the bottom of the stack she pulled a single sheet, an unfolded brochure decorated with colorful words and images. Grimacing, she tossed it to Frigid Night.

"Canterlot High School. What are they doing creeping around a high school?"

Morning shrugged and suppressed a yawn. She hated stakeouts, and it was starting to show."Bucked if I know. But if the Templars are there, then we need to be there as well."

Night agreed, although his reaction was a bit more tempered. "I'll call Mentor. Secure the intel and take care of the body."

Ignoring the glare that Morning Blade shot him, Frigid Night whipped out his cell phone and pressed speed dial.

After precisely two rings, the call got through.

"Mentor… yes. We intercepted the target and disposed of him. Working on that now, but we discovered something pretty big here… yeah, bigger than Saddle Arabia. Looks like the Templars have their sights set on Canterlot High School, in Canterl-sorry, Mentor. It's just late and… sorry." Morning smirked. Frigid always did have a habit of putting his foot in his mouth when talking to the Mentor.

"Anyway, we have reason to believe that a girl who goes to school there, called Sunset Shimmer, is being targeted for reasons unknown… four photos, Mentor, each of her and a bunch of encoded documents. I think we need to follow up on this."

Morning Blade watched as her partner fell silent. She had a shrewd reason why; their Mentor was known to order abrupt moments of silence during conversations in order to think. Talking during that moment of silence would earn you a whack on the head, as most of them learned the hard way. She shrugged and tucked the documents into a hidden inner pocket in her coat and got to widening the stab wound in Cobalt's neck so it looked like it had been caused by a random gang attack rather than a skilled Assassin.

Meanwhile, the conversation picked up once more.

"Mentor. Yes. I'm sure. What do you mean- sorry. You're right. It's just that this seems very fishy and would require a lot of blending in- but I can still- "Night's shoulders tensed up and fell in defeat. "Yes, Mentor. I'll tell her immediately."

He hung up, looking rather less chipper than he had before.

"Mentor thinks it's worth following up on, and that we did well."

"So what's the part you're not telling me?" Morning quickly rifled through Cobalt's pockets, unearthing a fat wallet and a set of car keys. She pocketed both.

"We're not going."

"Figures. Not as if we'd fit in anyway."

"That's what Mentor said, but…" he hesitated and chewed his bottom lip.

Morning Blade's mouth stretched in a catlike yawn. "Look, Nighty, I'm already tired from having sat on a chimney in the cold for six hours. Just spit it out and help me hide the body."

Frigid Night blushed at being called 'Nighty' and helped his partner haul the corpse of Cobalt out the door and lower it against a dumpster. As an afterthought, he chose an empty glass bottle from the trash and smashed it over the body's head.

"Nice touch." Morning flicked her hood back up and did a few stretches to combat the stiffness of standing in a room for twenty minutes. "Now tell me who Mentor's sending and we can go home, because I sure won't remember to ask you in the morning."

Frigid Night told her. Morning's face shifted through a barrage of emotions, a frown of confusion, a sidelong glance of doubt, but settled on a shrug of indifference and resignation.

"There's no one else. Besides, it might be a good chance for her to make some friends."

"We're Assassins," said Frigid Night glumly as he pulled his hood up as well and stamped his feet to warm them up a bit. "We don't have friends."

"Excuse me, you might enjoy playing the mysterious loner, Frigid, but some of us do enjoy mingling with the people we're sworn to protect. You should try it sometime."

"And get a shank in the back for my trouble? No thanks," quailing under the stern look that Morning shot him, Frigid Night amended his statement. "Okay, okay. Not everyone is a Templar in disguise, but I'd rather not take the chance. You have the documents?"

Morning patted her coat. "Right here."

"Good. You go take them back to the bureau, and I'll go tell the novice that she's going back to school."

Nodding one last time to each other, the pair parted ways to their respective destinations, leaving the streets silent and empty once more.


	2. Chapter 1

"And that wraps up the last unit of the study guide. We'll spend the next week or so playing review games and going over test material."

It was the last period of the day at Canterlot High School on Thursday afternoon, and Mr. Discord the science teacher had just finished covering the blackboard with exam material. He wore a stained lab coat, a pair of yellow tinted safety goggles, and one rubber glove that was clasped around a stick of chalk.

"For homework, I would like you all to read up on the chaos theory and write me an essay on what you would do if you were me, to be turned in on Monday. That's all, class dismissed." Tossing the chalk into his mouth, Mr. Discord bowed and swept out of the room like a multicolored hurricane just as the bell rang for the end of the day.

Sunset Shimmer scrawled down the last formula and sighed. She stretched her legs out under her desk and began to pack up, a gloomy expression adorning her face. It had only been a couple of weeks since the Canterlot High musical showcase, but already the defeat of the Sirens was becoming old news. While Sunset was in many ways glad that school life was finally returning to some semblance of normalcy, she wished that this normalcy didn't have to come in the form of midterm exams. Every teacher from Ms. Cheerilee to Mrs. Harshwhinny seemed to have had some kind of gear in their heads switched that put them on, as Rainbow Dash called it, 'full yawn-o-rama mode'.

She sighed and pulled out her phone, tapping Mr. Discord's assignment into her planner and giving a little groan when she saw how much she already had to do that night. Thanks to the grueling amount of work everyone at CHS had been subjected to, the Rainbooms hadn't been able to get together to practice for a while, something which many of its members lamented during the lunch period.

Sunset sighed and left the classroom for her locker. Rarity and Applejack were also there, each with a stack of books in their arms.

"Hello, Sunset," greeted Rarity. "How was class?"

"Awful." replied Sunset flatly. "Mr. D wants an essay about the chaos theory on Monday, on top of the studying and the fifty questions for Calculus."

Her friends winced in unison. "Wow." Applejack whistled. "Who'd a' thought Mr. D would get caught up in all this, of all people?"

"I know exactly what you mean, Applejack. I have a poetry analysis due tomorrow too!" Rarity said. "Perhaps Fluttershy can assist me…"

The three girls stuffed their books into their bags and walked out the front doors, still comparing who had the biggest workload. The wind bit at their exposed skin, making them hurry along to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with the rest of the band.

* * *

><p>By the time they got there, Sunset Shimmer was really missing her pony form's fur coat. The gale had intensified, blowing in smudges of grey cloud as they walked. By the time Rarity pushed open the door to the sweet shop, the sun was completely gone.<p>

After ordering their drinks, Sunset, Applejack, and Rarity quickly found Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy nestled in a corner booth crowded around a newspaper.

"Hey girls," Applejack said, setting down her backpack with an audible crash. "What're ya reading, homework?"

"Nope!" said Pinkie Pie cheerily. She was in the act of tearing open a sachet of sugar and emptying it into her drink, but missed and dumped it on the table. "Dashie's been looking at it all afternoon!" Taking a straw, the puffy haired girl inserted it in one nostril and began to inhale the spilled sugar.

"Uh-huh. Rainbow? What's up?"

Rainbow Dash lowered the newspaper, rubbing her eyes. She hadn't had much sleep recently; none of them had. And since Daring Do was the only kind of literature that Rainbow found worth her time, the reading assignments that Mr. Cranky Doodle had given them to review were often left until late into the night.

"Nothing much." replied Rainbow. "Just reading about a murder that happened in Trottingham two days ago. Some poor guy on the board of education or something."

"Really?" Rarity asked, sitting down with her smoothie. "May I see that?" Nodding, the athlete slid the newspaper over and took a sip of her own drink. The article was short but to the point, with a blurry photograph attached that showed a pair of policemen covering something with a white sheet.

"Residents of Trottingham are saddened by the sudden death of Cobalt, a well-known member of the board of education. Cobalt, aged 27, was found dead in an alley near the west end of the city with a stab wound to the neck and severe cranial trauma. Trottingham police are still on the lookout for the killer, though all signs point to local gang violence." Rarity read aloud. "Well, that's dreadful business." She concluded and returned the paper.

"I know," Rainbow Dash said through a mouthful of pastry. "I have friends in Trottingham who live near there, so I'm…y'know, worried."

"I'm sure they're fine." Fluttershy said soothingly. "The police will make sure nothing like this happens again."

"Yeah…"

Deciding it was time to change the subject, Sunset Shimmer plopped herself down next to Pinkie. "How are you girls getting on with the homework? I got a ton of it today." She stuck her tongue out in mock disgust.

There was a general murmuring of agreement from everybody but Pinkie Pie, who was wearing an uncharacteristically concerned look on her normally carefree face. Then one of her legs twitched violently, shaking the table and drawing a few curious looks from adjacent tables and her friends.

"Wow," said Sunset wryly. "I didn't know that it was possible to be so opposed to homework that you got a seizure just at the mention of it."

"No, it's not that, though homework itself is pretty ugh. That was my Pinkie sense!" She pressed a hand on her twitching leg and gave the entire interior of Sugarcube Corner a careful look. "Twitchy leg, dry tongue…there's someone hiding from us in here."

As one, the rest of the girls gave the entire bakery a once-over. It didn't take very long.

"Uh, Pinks? I don't see anyone hiding." Rainbow Dash pointed out. It was true. Aside from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon texting on their phones, Flash Sentry and his gaggle of bandmates, Octavia Melody sitting on a bench with two of her friends, and the Cakes behind the counter, there was nobody else. And the furniture didn't exactly leave a lot of places where someone could conceal themselves.

Applejack was just as confused. "You're sure that someone's hidin' in here? Because there ain't a lot of places to hide in here, jus' saying…"

"Maybe you're just tired." Rarity suggested with an understanding smile. "I sometimes think I see things when I stay up working on dresses…and these days we've all been rather stretched."

"Yeah…" Pinkie said as she sank back into her seat looking unconvinced. "Maybe."

Rainbow Dash finished her drink with a loud slurp. "Well, I gotta run. Soccer practice."

"M-me too. The animal shelter's decorating for Christmas, and I said I'd help…"

One by one the girls trickled out of the bakery off to their own activities. Sunset Shimmer was the last to leave, hoisting her backpack onto her shoulders and waving to some classmates as she walked out into the chilling wind. Her spirits sank as she remembered the daunting amount of schoolwork that had to be done tonight. Pulling her leather jacket close around her body, Sunset bowed her head against the wind and headed home.

* * *

><p>Precisely twenty seconds after Sunset was out of sight of Sugarcube Corner, Octavia started as a girl next to her in a white hoodie stood up and headed out the door. The cellist blinked a few times, surprised that she had not noticed the stranger earlier.<p>

Lyra, who had been sitting on the other side of the bench, looked equally perplexed.

"Uh, did you know who that was?" asked the mint green girl. Octavia shook her head. Already details about the strange girl were fading from memory, almost as though there had never been anyone but her and Lyra on that bench all afternoon.

"How odd." Octavia muttered. For a single, clear moment she had a suspicion that she had just missed something important, but then someone spilled coffee on her blouse.

* * *

><p>The next morning was cold, grey, and every bit as unwelcoming as the previous afternoon. Sleepy students filed into Canterlot High, rubbing their hands together in appreciation of the school's indoor heating and swapping answers about the previous night's assignments.<p>

Sunset Shimmer took her seat next to Applejack in Mrs. Harshwhinny's homeroom just as the bell rang to start the day. Their teacher was in the middle of taking roll when there was a knock on the classroom door. With an audibly annoyed sigh, Mrs. Harshwhinny put down her clipboard and answered the door.

"Oh! Principal Celestia. What a surprise. What can I do for you?"

The principal of Canterlot High motioned for Mrs. Harshwhinny to step outside, which she did but not before telling the class to "behave while I'm gone."

Which is why Sunset was not in the least bit surprised when, as soon as the door shut, everyone started talking, some getting out their homework to fill in some answers at the very last minute, others simply lounging around with their feet on the table.

Turning to Applejack, Sunset jerked a thumb at the door and asked, "So what do you think Principal Celestia and Mrs. Harshwhinny are talking about?"

"Maybe cancelling the midterms?" joked Rainbow Dash, sauntering over. "You two get any sleep last night?"

"Not as much as I'd a' liked," admitted Applejack. "Big Mac and I had to start winter proofin' the farm yesterday, and then I had reading on top of that so I'm plumb tuckered out."

"Think you'll get it done on time for the snowfall?" Sunset inquired. Sweet Apple Acres was a sizable farm, and winter proofing the entire place was no small undertaking. The farm girl smiled though, and reassured Sunset that they would have it done by Monday, although it would definitely mean a few more sleepless nights.

"How about you, Sunset? Got any plans for the weekend?"

The sound of the doorknob turning brought a swift end to the chatter as Mrs. Harshwhinny came back into the classroom, followed by a girl Sunset had never seen before.

She slouched in after the teacher, hands in the pockets of her jeans and surveying the room with an air of bored disinterest from under the hood of her white jacket. The girl stopped at the front of the room, glancing at the teacher for further instruction.

Mrs. Harshwhinny cleared her throat for attention. "Attention everyone. This is Velvet Breeze," she announced, gesturing to the hooded girl. "She'll be joining our class from today onwards."

Velvet Breeze gave a little bow to the class, sweeping her orange eyes over each and every student there. Sunset suddenly felt very self-conscious under those eyes, as though she was a mouse caught in the sights of an eagle. She gulped and sank lower in her seat, trying to look anywhere but at the new girl. The feeling passed as quickly as it had come, leaving Sunset with sweaty palms and a newfound interest in the new girl.

"Pleased to meet you all." Velvet reached up and lowered her hood, revealing a dusky blue face framed with shoulder length hair in shades of teal and grey, held out of her eyes with a hairclip that was shaped like an inverted letter 'V'. "I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you."

Even to Sunset it sounded rehearsed, but Mrs. Harshwhinny simply smiled and guided Velvet over to an empty seat next to Trixie at the second last row of the room. Ignoring the surreptitious stares of her new classmates, the new student sat down and retrieved a pen and notebook from her bag, looking at the teacher expectantly.

"Erm, yes. Anyway, I want you all to do your part in making Miss Breeze feel as welcome as possible here at CHS…now please take out last night's assignments and pass them up to the front."

* * *

><p>The rest of the class passed in a slightly uncomfortable manner, with Mrs. Harshwhinny droning on about what would be on the literature exam and how to best prepare for it, but no one really was paying much attention, instead finding more sport in sneaking looks at the new kid rather than copying down everything the teacher was saying.<p>

Halfway through the class, Sunset chanced a look over her shoulder at Velvet. There she was, sitting two rows behind her and writing in her notebook with one hand while resting her head on the other.

Nothing unusual there, thought Sunset. She glanced across the room and caught Rainbow Dash waving at her, mouthing something unintelligible. The athlete was leaning out of her chair and had her legs wrapped around her desk to keep herself from falling off.

"What?" Sunset mouthed back.

Rainbow repeated the silent message, exaggerating the movements of her mouth to no avail.

"What is it?" hissed Sunset, keeping her voice as low as possible while keeping one eye on Mrs. Harshwhinny. The literature teacher had her back to them and was in the process of outlining an essay draft.

The rainbow haired girl frowned and slowly slipped out of her seat, stealthily making her way to the box of tissues at the other side of the room near where Sunset and Applejack sat. Rainbow made a small spectacle of blowing her nose and disposing of the tissue, and after she was sure no one was looking, stopped by Sunset's desk on her way back.

"What is it?" asked Sunset Shimmer again, looking concerned. She kept her voice low and bent over in her seat in case anyone was listening in.

Rainbow Dash swallowed, smiled sheepishly and said, "Can I borrow your blue highlighter?"

Failing to keep the deflated look off her face, Sunset wordlessly reached into her bag and handed over the highlighter.


	3. Chapter 2

By the time she left her classroom for lunch, Sunset's nerves were beginning to fray. Not only had Mr. Cranky Doodle decided to keep them after the bell, he had also added a whole chapter of extra reading for the weekend. Clenching her fists around the straps of her schoolbag, Sunset lamented the lack of magic in this world; her back felt like it was going to telescope from all the books she was carrying.

As a result, Sunset was all too happy to be able to join her friends in the cafeteria. She freed herself from the burden of her backpack and dug into her plate of mashed potatoes and celery with gusto as the rest of the girls chattered about their plans for the weekend.

"Think we could get in some practice on Sunday?" Rainbow Dash asked no one in particular. "My parents are going to be at their friends' house, so I'll have my place to myself."

"Maybe you should visit a stationery store instead," Sunset suggested dryly.

Taking the hint, Rainbow sighed good-naturedly and tossed over the borrowed highlighter. "Thanks for that; I left my pencil case at home today."

"Hey, it's no big deal. I just thought you wanted to talk about something more urgent than not being able to do your notes properly."

"You mean like tha' new girl?" Applejack asked. Sunset nodded, impressed as always with the farm girl's ability to cut to the chase.

There was a clatter as Pinkie Pie dropped her spoon. She practically bounced forward in her seat with glee. "Did you say new girl? Where?"

"Our homeroom," Sunset said, washing down the last of her lunch with a swig of juice. "Name's Velvet Breeze."

"Yep. Just transferred in or something." Applejack agreed. "Must be from out a' town, I reckon."

Rarity snapped her compact shut, having just finished touching up her lipstick. "At this time of the year? But the only thing we're doing now is exams! Do you know where she's from?"

"Nope." Rainbow said, shrugging.

"And you didn't think to ask?"

"Hey, I had bigger things to worry about!" Rainbow said defensively. "And if you're so curious, why don't you ask her yourself?"

Rarity resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her athletic friend's lack in inquisitiveness and was in the midst of getting up when she realized she was missing a crucial detail.

"Ahem, Sunset, dear," she said delicately, sitting back down. "What does Velvet Breeze look like?"

"Oh, oh!" Pinkie exclaimed, her poofy curls bouncing in time with her outbursts. "Is she wearing a white jacket, blue jeans, and a silver hairclip?"

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sunset Shimmer exchanged looks that verged on disturbed. "Actually, yeah, but how did you-"

"Duh! I know everyone in Canterlot High! All I had to do was look for someone I didn't recognize. She's right over there, by the way."

The rest of the table followed Pinkie's finger to the far left corner of the cafeteria. Sure enough, there was Velvet Breeze. She sat alone, a half-eaten apple in one hand and a pen in the other, scribbling furiously in her notebook. Every now and then she would glance up and look around the cafeteria, almost like she was waiting for something.

"She looks lonely." Fluttershy ventured.

Sunset was about to agree, but 'lonely' somehow didn't seem appropriate. She knew what it was like to be lonely, especially after the Fall Formal. To be excluded from everyone's social circles, to be longing just a bit of attention, of acceptance. Even as they watched, a trio of students from Sunset's class walked past, waving to Velvet who gave them a smile and a nod in return.

No, not lonely. 'Solitary' was a more fitting term.

And then there had been that moment of unease when Velvet had introduced herself…

Although she felt guilty about suspecting this new girl over nothing more than a brief moment of the shivers, Sunset couldn't deny that her intuition had come in handy before.

"Say, Applejack, Rainbow, did you notice anything…off about Velvet when you first saw her?" She tried to keep her voice casual, but in retrospect there really was no 'being casual' about something like this.

"You mean like the Sirens?" Rainbow deduced her meaning instantly.

"Yeah."

Rainbow's face scrunched up as she tried to remember. "I don't remember feeling like anything was off…"

"What about you, Applejack?"

"Not really, other than thinkin' it was kind of strange to wear a hood indoors. Why, did you feel somethin' unusual?"

Sunset squirmed in her seat. "Well, not really…" she lied. "It was probably just me being overly cautious. You know, this school has a history of unusual new students."

Everybody had a good chuckle at that. They all remembered, with mixed degrees of fondness, just what each of those students had brought to Canterlot High. From Sunset's arrival from Equestria all those years ago to the Battle of the Bands, no one could deny that sudden additions to the student body tended to herald…interesting events in the school's history.

"But still, it's kind of weird that someone would transfer in so close to the end of the year. Why not wait until the end of winter vacation?"

"Maybe it's a personal matter." Rarity said. A sharp look came into her eyes. "Although if you do find out the reason, make sure you tell me."

"Mhhm." Sunset had been planning to find out more anyway. It wasn't as though it was a crime to ask the new kid a few questions anyway, right?

* * *

><p>Sunset walked out of Mr. Discord's class that afternoon with a considerably lighter heart than she had expected, not to mention a lighter workload. The eccentric science teacher had accidentally incinerated his lesson plan with a Bunsen burner midway through his lesson on exothermic reactions, and in exchange for keeping it from Principal Celestia he had agreed to give them a weekend free from homework.<p>

"Our little secret, all right?" He smiled nervously as his class filed out of the room.

As she dropped her heavy science textbook in her locker, Sunset saw a familiar flash of white at the corner of her eye.

Turning around, Sunset was just fast enough to catch sight of a hooded person duck back around the hallway corner. She frowned. There had been no mistaking that jacket, or the gleam of orange under that hood.

Sunset frowned. It was one thing to attribute an odd feeling as paranoia, but peeking around corners at people was not normal behavior, even for a new student. Something was up.

Grasping her bag, Sunset pushed gently through a group of oncoming sixth graders and toward the same corner. She slowed down as she prepared to turn. With luck, Velvet would be caught by surprise if she was still there. And even if she wasn't, the adjacent hallway was a dead end; there was nowhere to go.

She stopped just short of the turn. Perhaps if she waited here, then Velvet might decide to peek around again, which would confirm her suspicions that the new girl had something to hide. However, if she waited too long, Velvet would have time to conceal herself, or maybe even make up an excuse.

Well, that wasn't happening. If her experience with the Dazzlings (and in hindsight herself) had taught her anything, it was that if you stopped the problem early it meant a whole lot less hassle and heartache later. And there was no way she was letting another crisis hit Canterlot High so soon after the last one.

"All right, Velvet Breeze," Sunset smiled self-assuredly to herself. "Time to spill the beans."

Stepping out from her hiding place, Sunset Shimmer barely had time to throw herself to the side as a crowd of jersey-clad teenagers stampeded past her and toward the soccer pitch, leaving behind a miasma of deodorant and air freshener.

After she peeled herself away from the wall, the amber girl shot a glare at the retreating backs of the soccer team and scanned the hallway for Velvet Breeze's hooded form.

But the hallway was completely empty.

* * *

><p>A gust of cold wind and the tinkling of the bell announced Sunset's arrival at Sugarcube Corner.<p>

"What took you so long?" Asked Applejack as Sunset joined them with a steaming mug of coffee.

Sunset, still lost in thought, didn't immediately answer. She raised the mug to her lips and drank, gazing at her reflection in the inky liquid as if hoping to find the answer to life's questions in its depths.

Fluttershy looked at her, unsure of what to do. "Um, Sunset? Did something happen?"

"…I think I saw Velvet Breeze."

"You think you saw her." Rarity repeated. "You don't sound very sure."

Fortifying herself with another gulp of coffee, Sunset recounted the afternoon's events, carefully leaving out the part where Mr. D had almost set off the fire alarm with his shenanigans. She'd spent a good half hour banging around the hallway, searching for a locker that someone her size might have hidden themselves in and it had only been after Vice Principal Luna had come out and told her to head home that she had stopped.

"It just doesn't make sense!" Sunset finished moodily. "People don't just disappear like that!"

"Except me!" piped up Pinkie, her head appearing out of Fluttershy's backpack.

"Except you." Sunset conceded. "You're not related to her, are you?"

"Velvet? Nope, but she's good at hide and seek! I wanted to talk to her after lunch earlier, but I lost her right outside the cafeteria. Hey, I know! You're in her homeroom, right? Can you pass her this?"

Reaching into her voluminous hairdo, Pinkie retrieved a peppermint lollipop and a glittery pink envelope. The treat she stuck into Sunset's mouth, the envelope into the now-silenced girl's hand.

"It's an invitation to her 'Welcome to Canterlot High Party' that I'm throwing! Can you give it to her on Monday?"

Sunset nodded. She could have taken the lollipop out of her mouth to answer, but the candy was surprisingly good.

"You're invited too!" Pinkie addressed the entire table. "Friday afternoon, next week in the gym."

Swept away by a chorus of cheering, Sunset soon forgot about the afternoon's incident. After all, it was the weekend. There was no reason to believe she would see Velvet Breeze until Monday.

Shelving her worries for another day, Sunset spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying herself with her friends.

* * *

><p>As the sky began to darken, the six girls reluctantly parted ways to return to their respective homes. The wind had intensified, the chill cutting at any exposed skin like a knife. Although the weather report had predicted that snow wasn't due for two weeks at least, Sunset was sure she saw a flake or two drift past her face on the way back to her apartment. Perhaps it was time for a change of wardrobe; if it really did start to snow, her skirt and jacket ensemble wasn't going to be much protection from the elements.<p>

Parting ways with Fluttershy at the traffic light, Sunset stood under the pole and crossed her arms to keep the cold out. She was just making a mental note to ask Rarity just which fabrics would be best suited to deal with the upcoming snowfall when a shiny black car pulled up to the curb. It was clearly a foreign model, as Sunset didn't recognize the brand or the name of the city on the license plate. She stepped back expecting someone to get out, but no one did.

Instead the driver's window buzzed down, revealing a grey-skinned man in his middle ages, his face partially hidden behind a pair of tinted glasses and a dark blue trilby hat. There was another person seated on the passenger side but before Sunset could get a good look at them, the driver crooked a finger in her direction, motioning for her to come over. After a second's hesitation, Sunset warily made her way to the edge of the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, young lady." The driver said with a half-smile. "Do you know where Canterlot High School is? I'm meeting someone there and I'm afraid I have gotten a little lost." He had a slight accent, but not enough for Sunset to pinpoint what exactly.

"Uh, yeah, yes I do." Replied Sunset. Were they new members of the staff or parents scouting out the school for the next semester? "It's just off Rider Street, three blocks that way," She briefly unfolded her arms to point in the appropriate direction. "Turn left at SugarCube Corner, then follow the road down, you can't miss it."

"Rider Street, eh? I must have missed it on the map. Do you go there?" The driver peered at Sunset over the top of this glasses, his eyes shining in the shadow of his hat. There was something in that look; not exactly hostile but not just friendly curiosity either. Sunset found her legs tensing up, ready to run.

"Uh, yes." she said.

The driver, seemingly oblivious to her discomfort, gave her a slightly wider smile and began to buzz the window back up. "Thank you, Sunset Shimmer. Have a nice day."

And with a purr of the engine, the car sped off down the road, leaving Sunset in the dust with a frown on her face and a question in her mind.

She hadn't told him her name…so how had he known who she was?

* * *

><p>As fate would have it, Sunset was not the only one wondering that.<p>

High above the crossing, a figure dressed in hooded white robes leaned against an old chimney, having just finished listening in on the whole conversation.

Velvet Breeze's gaze jumped between Sunset Shimmer's retreating form and the black car. It had a head start on her, but it was late afternoon traffic; the streets were packed with commuters leaving their workplaces.

After using the soccer team as a convenient smokescreen, Velvet had doubled back around and waited for Sunset to show up at Sugarcube Corner, as she suspected she would. For three hours she had waited, waiting for the moment to make her move. And had it not been for that car, Velvet would have followed through with her original plan and trailed Sunset home.

But now…

Sunset was still within striking distance, her head bent down against the wind. She'd never see her coming. The car was at a junction, stopped at a red light but that would change in a minute or two. Velvet had to decide now.

Casting one last look at Sunset Shimmer, Velvet Breeze spun around and took off after the black car.

She broke into a run, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as the gusts of wind that threatened to throw her off balance whipped the ends of her robes around. Her legs burned with familiar exertion, but she didn't slow down one bit. She loved running, the feeling of flying high above the ground.

Her quarry made a left turn at Sugarcube Corner just as Sunset had instructed. Velvet skipped down to an overhanging balcony and leapt off the railing. Her hands caught a hanging planter and she used her momentum to swing ninety degrees and up.

Smirking under the shadow of her hood, Velvet poured on the speed as the car accelerated into the bus lane. Whoever was driving seemed to be in a hurry to get to Canterlot High, if indeed they were going there. Velvet vaulted over a ventilation duct and ducked around a chimney. She had to keep the car in her sights no matter what. She had to-

And suddenly there was no ground beneath her feet and an awful lurch of disorientation as the open sky was replaced by a rush of bricks and mortar, followed by the feeling of something hard and unyielding slamming into her back, accompanied by a stinging in her right arm.

For a moment, the girl could do nothing but lay still, her hood askew, staring up at the slice of sky that taunted her from between the two buildings that she had fallen in.

Panting more from shock than anything else, Velvet Breeze painfully picked herself up off the ground and staggered to her feet. Her ribs and spine were throbbing and she would have some lovely bruises in the morning, but as she glanced down she realized how lucky she had been. A foot or more to the left and she would have landed on a rake.

The rumbling of a passing car jolted Velvet out of her trance and she half ran, half limped out to the road looking around wildly for the black car, but almost immediately she knew that there was no point. Even if the car had still been in sight there was no way she was going to be able to catch it at this distance.

Mentally berating herself for not watching where she had been running, Velvet briefly contemplated going back for Sunset but another stab of pain from her mouth nipped that thought in the bud. Somehow she'd managed to bite her tongue in the fall and blood was oozing down her chin, ruining any chance of blending in normally.

With all her plans for the day shot, Velvet could only imagine what the rest of her brotherhood would say if they had seen her today. As she slunk back into the shadows, there was no doubt in her mind that it would not have been anything good.


	4. Chapter 3

There was nothing Sunset quite liked more than sleeping in on a Saturday morning. She snuggled deeper into the covers as the patter of rain tapped against the window, clueing her in on the day's forecast without needing to open her eyes. She had been having a dream about something pleasant which she vaguely remembered involved lollipops and when she shifted her head, Sunset realized with mild dismay that she had drooled all over her pillow.

"Ick." Sunset said blearily as she sat up and pushed the pillow to the floor.

Sunset rolled out of bed and into her slippers, shivering as the blankets slid off her shoulders. Another chilly day. She pulled off the pillowcase and dragged it into the bathroom with a towel, taking a look at her wall clock on the way. It was twenty past ten.

Well, that was plenty of time for Sunset. She switched on the heat lamp in her bathroom and after tossing her pajamas into the same basket as her soiled pillowcase, Sunset was soon basking in the refreshing caress of a hot shower.

She was just washing the shampoo and soap out of her hair when the monotone sound of rushing water was broken by a series of sharp trilling sounds from her bedroom.

Sunset paused and poked her head out of the shower, still blinking suds out of her eyes. It was her phone. It was lying on her bedside cabinet, still plugged into the charger from last night and warbling to notify her of an incoming call.

She sighed, almost considering letting the caller get redirected to voice mail, but relented and tiptoed over to the bedside after drying her feet on the mat. Careful not to let her hair touch the phone, Sunset tapped 'answer' and help it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hiya Sunset!" Rainbow Dash's voice blared into her ear. "Am I interrupting something? Took you a while to pick up."

Sunset shook her head even though she knew Rainbow couldn't see her. "No, I wasn't doing anything much. What's up?"

"Just wanted to know if you were free later today. I just got done with my morning run and since Flutters and AJ are busy, I wanted to-"

"Rainbow. We have a heap of homework to do, remember?"

"But that's exactly it!" Rainbow said, sounding exasperated. "Apart from you, they're the only people I know who take AP Lit! I need your help or I'll never get this report done on time!"

So that was it. Sunset grimaced ruefully as she remembered the extra chapter of reading the Mr. Cranky Doodle had assigned them and sighed. That old coot never did let up.

"Fine. Where do you want to meet?"

"Awesome!" Sunset moved the phone further from her ear as Rainbow's voice cracked with happiness. "Can we meet at noon, my place? I can come over and pick you up if you want."

"Uh, it's ok. I'll walk."

"Look, I swear my driving's improved from last time," Dash persuaded. "and it wasn't my fault that the flagpole happened to be in the way."

"We've gone over this." Sunset said flatly. "I'll see you at noon. Bye, Rainbow."

"Bye, Sunset. Thanks again!"

By now, Sunset was standing in the middle of a sizable puddle on the floor and her nose was starting to run from the cold. Tossing the phone unceremoniously onto her bed, she hurried back into the bathroom and finished up her shower.

* * *

><p>The rain had stopped by the time Sunset left her apartment. The air had that peculiar smell that comes from rainwater meeting asphalt, one that she found strangely enticing. Her backpack hung from one shoulder as she strolled the relatively short distance to her friend's house, one which would take little less than fifteen minutes to cover.<p>

In addition to her leather jacket, Sunset had elected to don some leggings and wrap a scarf around her neck, a decision which she was took pride in, because even with them on the air was as Pinkie had once called it, 'bum-chillingly cold'. She snickered at the fitting description and walked on.

A few turns and zebra crossings later, Sunset was still ten minutes away from her destination when she spotted something that made her take out her earbuds and slow down.

"Principal Celestia?" Sunset said under her breath. She couldn't recall ever seeing them outside of school hours, but those clothes and hairstyles made it impossible for her to mistake them for anyone else.

The spectral haired principal and her younger sister were walking toward her, both on either side of a tall, formal looking man who was wearing a familiar looking trilby, though this time the tinted glasses were missing. Looking behind them, Sunset also spotted the stranger's black car parked on the street corner. The three adults were apparently deep in conversation, because it was only when Sunset walked up and said hi that they noticed her presence.

"Good afternoon, Miss Shimmer." Greeted Celestia warmly. "I'm sorry I didn't see you; my sister and I were just talking to Mr. Wolfgang about his role at Canterlot High."

The man from yesterday, who was apparently Mr. Wolfgang, gave her a nod and shook her hand. "We've met. Miss Shimmer was the student who directed me to your wonderful school yesterday. My thanks." He tried to smile, but his face somehow couldn't quite manage it. His eyes remained calm and analytical no matter how many teeth he showed.

"You're a teacher?" Sunset asked.

"In a manner of speaking." Vice Principal Luna said. "Mr. Wolfgang is an inspector from the board of education. He's going to be attending classes at CHS for the rest of the semester and sending reports back to his superiors in Manehattan." Luna put a slight emphasis on the word _reports_ that made Sunset suspect that perhaps Luna wasn't very happy about this.

"I'm sorry to have come at such short notice." Mr. Wolfgang said with a regretful smile. "The inspector who was supposed to be doing the job was, ahem, killed during a business meeting in Trottingham. I'm sure you saw that on the news."

"Killed? Oh, how awful!" Celestia exclaimed.

"Gang violence, I'm afraid. These things happen…young ones who have too much pent up energy often try to expend it in ways that aren't socially acceptable. I trust that Canterlot is better in that regard?" As he spoke, Mr. Wolfgang reached into his pocket and extracted a stubby cigar which he inserted between his thin lips but did not light.

Vice Principal Luna crossed her arms and gave the inspector a cold look. "Of course. We do not tolerate such behavior at Canterlot High."

"I'll be the judge of that. Now, you have quite a few forms to work through before Monday, so I think we should get started right away." Mr. Wolfgang's eyes roved over Sunset's body once more before he took up his stride down the street again, the two staff members following closely. "I'll see you on Monday then, young lady. Do stay out of trouble."

Sunset watched the three until they were out of earshot, but what she did hear was all administrative mumbo-jumbo that did nothing to ease the feeling of apprehension that was building up in her chest.

First a new student, and now an inspector? Something here just didn't add up.

* * *

><p>One thing Sunset would never quite understand about Rainbow Dash was how she could catch on to the tiny nuances and foreshadowing the A.K. Yearling put into her novels with no problems at all, but struggled to even grasp the simplest metaphors in the assigned reading.<p>

"Ok, so when the poet says the sky is blue, she meant that she was tired of living inside all the time?" the athlete tried, her worksheet covered in whiteout and scratched out ideas.

Resisting the urge to groan, Sunset gritted her teeth and shook her head. "It means that the poet's heart is full of sorrow, but looks forward to a bright future with freedom. It alludes to that in lines sixteen and fifty-four."

"How the hay am I supposed to know that?!" Rainbow cried, throwing her arms up in the air and nearly spilling her drink. "Why can't she just come out and say that instead of dancing around it for seventy-four stanzas?"

For the hour and a half, the two girls had been hacking away at a particularly thorny poem written during the classical era which their stubborn mule of a teacher seemed to be convinced was the greatest expression of thought of all time. He had made it no secret that he assigned this piece of reading every year, and those who had taken his class had an endless collection of stories to tell about how they got told off when they interpreted it incorrectly.

"And this is going to be on the midterm!" moaned Rainbow Dash into her knees. "I'm so doomed."

"Well look at it this way," Sunset said jokingly as she patted her friend on the back. "at least if the class does badly, Mr. Cranky'll be forced to change the syllabus for next year."

Rainbow gave Sunset a sidelong look."Why's that? He hasn't changed it in years. He's in love with that poet Matilda, I tell you. If they lived in the same time period, they'd probably be a couple."

"Because," Sunset said patiently. "this year there's an inspector from the board of education coming to check on the staff or something. I met him on the way here."

Rainbow Dash sat up in her chair and shook her hair out of her face. "What's he like?"

Sunset frowned. There wasn't much she really did know about Mr. Wolfgang, but what she did know was hardly going to fill Rainbow with confidence.

"Honestly? I don't know. Vice Principal Luna doesn't seem to like him very much though."

"Do you think he knows about…you know, all that other stuff? Princess Twilight and the Dazzlings and, uh, you?"

That was a good question, and one that Sunset found more than a little sobering. It was unrealistic, once she thought it over, to expect people to stay quiet about the magical happenings at CHS. After all, giant rainbow waves, a flaming she-demon blowing up the front of the school, and the astral forms of ancient monsters appearing during a concert weren't the kind of thing people could be trusted to keep quiet about. In fact, it was probably a miracle that no one had come to investigate sooner.

"Principal Celestia did say that she wouldn't tell anyone…" Sunset began.

"Yeah, but this is the board of education we're talking about." Rainbow twirled her pen around her fingers, something that Sunset knew she did when she got nervous. "She might lose her job if she doesn't tell the truth."

"I hope it doesn't come to that." Sunset couldn't imagine a Canterlot High without Principal Celestia. "They just said he was going to be dropping by classes to make sure things were going fine." She stared morosely into her glass of soda at the thought of it.

They returned to work, but soon realized that neither of them was able to concentrate any more on the assignment.

"Look, why don't we go for a walk or something?" Sunset suggested, closing her textbook and binder. "I think we both need a break from this."

Rainbow Dash didn't need any further encouragement. Slamming shut her own book, she and Sunset were soon bundling up and heading off to a nearby café, a moderately sized establishment with good food and indoor heating called The Silver Reins. After being shown inside by a waiter who Sunset suspected was not really French but only putting on an accent, the girls placed their orders and sat down to wait.

"Not too many people here today." Commented Rainbow Dash. It was true. The Silver Reins was usually packed with people from a nearby law firm, but today it was unusually desolate. Only two other booths were taken up, one by two women in frilly dresses and the other by…

"Principal Celestia?" Sunset muttered, her eyebrows threatening to jump off her face. "Again?"

The principal had a small explosion of important looking forms spread out over her table and was sucking on the end of her pen, looking majorly bothered. An empty plate and a tall mug of coffee had been pushed aside to make room for a laptop computer and she would look over at the screen occasionally, tapping a key or two.

Her curiosity piqued, Sunset nudged Rainbow and pointed. Rainbow's laid back expression rapidly gave way to a look of vague surprise.

"What do you think she's working on?"

"Maybe those forms that the inspector mentioned…he did say there was a lot to get through."

Rainbow gave a low whistle. "That's a lot of forms for just one guy. Maybe she _is_ in trouble for all the crap the CHS went through."

"Maybe." Sunset slowly got out of her seat and walked the short distance to her principal.

"Oh, hello again, Sunset." Principal Celestia looked startled but covered it with a smile. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Where're Vice Principal Luna and Mr. Wolfgang?"

Principal Celestia pursed her lips and gave the nest of papers a gaze of distaste as she answered. "My sister is currently showing Mr. Wolfgang around the campus and helping him to get an office set up. I…decided to stay here so I could complete the paperwork in peace." She finished her explanation with a mouthful of coffee that did nothing to alleviate the tired look on her face.

"Look, if the board of education's on you because of...because of the Fall Formal, maybe I can tell them that you weren't involved in all that." Sunset said hopefully. "I mean, maybe I can change their minds."

But Principal Celestia simply gave Sunset a wan smile and shook her head. "That won't be necessary, Sunset. Mr. Wolfgang did ask about the Fall Formal as well as about the Battle of the Bands, but only because he needed a complete list of all the school events. No, this is just a routine inspection…one that came out of the blue, but it's nothing. Every school gets them from time to time."

"Oh."

"Besides," the principal continued. "not all this paperwork is about the inspection. There's still the matter of Miss Breeze's enrollment. Luna was supposed to take care of that, but as she is busy, I volunteered to do it."

Sunset Shimmer sat down across from Principal Celestia, who didn't seem to mind. In fact, the woman's face seemed to grow warmer as she beheld the girl in front of her. With a pang, Sunset realized that the position was strikingly familiar; she and Princess Celestia in Equestria had used to sit like this when she was still her student. A ball of nostalgia rose up in Sunset's throat as she wrenched her mind back to the present.

"I imagine it must be a lot of work for you." Sunset managed to croak. "I wish I could help."

"You can help by being on your best behavior in the coming three weeks. I don't know if you noticed, but Mr. Wolfgang doesn't seem to be the kind of man who enjoys levity. In fact, he seemed most interested in our disciplinary procedures, but I digress. It's really not as serious as it seems."

As airy as Principal Celestia was trying to sound, Sunset noticed that the smile on her face seemed rather forced. There was more at stake than was being said, but past experience with both principal and princess had taught Sunset that anything they wanted to say, they would say when they were ready and not a moment before.

Nodding, Sunset was about to go back to her own table when something Rarity had said from lunch yesterday crossed her mind.

"Principal Celestia?"

"Yes, Sunset?"

"If I'm not being too nosy, where did Velvet Breeze transfer in from? I didn't get the chance to ask her yesterday."

"Well, I don't see any harm in telling you that…" Shuffling through the morass of forms scattered across the table, Principal Celestia fished out one sheet with Velvet's name printed on the top and read over it. "Here we go…Velvet Breeze is from Trottingham."

"No school name?" Sunset knew from various unsolicited trips to the principal's office in search of blackmail material in the past that student profiles usually detailed what school they had attended beforehand, if any.

"I'm afraid not. All it says is-" Catching herself, the principal chuckled to herself and began rearranging her documents into less of a mess while checking something on her laptop. "Well, you can probably ask her yourself. As a member of the staff, there are some things I'm not really at liberty to share."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll need to get back to CHS before Luna does something she'll regret. She's even less happy about this inspection than I am, though I suspect for very different reasons. See you on Monday, Sunset. Say hi to Rainbow Dash for me."

Shuffling the last of the papers into her bag, Principal Celestia made her way to the cashier and then out the door, disappearing into the afternoon crowd.

Rainbow Dash looked up from her game of Flappy Pegasus as Sunset returned to their table.

"So? What's the deal?"

"I'm not sure. Mr. Wolfgang's arrival has definitely ruffled Vice Principal Luna's feathers, but Principal Celestia seems to be ok with it for the most part."

"So is this about the Sirens? Principal Celestia only looks that grim when talking about stuff like the Fall Formal. No offense."

"None taken." Sunset found it amusing how her friends still felt like they had to apologize for mentioning the Fall Formal around her. "But I think we should warn everyone else about this inspection. Give them time to prepare themselves."

"Good idea." Rainbow agreed. "Especially Pinkie; can you imagine the kind of heat Canterlot High would get if she tries to prank the inspector?"

Sunset and Rainbow both resolved to text as many people as they could about Monday, but Sunset also made a mental note to write to Princess Twilight on this as well. If anyone could help her find out just what was going on, it was Princess Twilight.


	5. Chapter 4

_Dear Sunset Shimmer,_

_It's good to hear that everyone's doing great, even with all these tests you have to study for. Personally, I recommend keeping a tight schedule on it, since distractions are everywhere, even more so than in Equestria. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't take breaks; if you don't let yourself reflect on what you've studied you won't learn anything either._

_About the new arrivals to Canterlot High School you wrote to me about, Spike and I have been checking through the archives and records here, but I haven't been able to locate anypony named Velvet Breeze from Trottingham. If my theory about the link between our worlds is right, then it's highly possible that she could be right here in Ponyville, or is not likely using her real name. I'll ask Pinkie Pie in the morning. In the meantime, keep a close eye on her but until she does something outright suspicious, try not to spook her. It wouldn't do to alienate someone just over a bit of paranoia._

_As for this Mr. Wolfgang, I'm still looking for him. If he's really an inspector from the board of education, please do your best to keep his view of Canterlot High a positive one._

_I'm afraid that I won't be able to make it to your world for more than a month at least; my duties as the Princess of Friendship are especially heavy during the time of Hearth's Warming Eve. Don't worry too much though, I'll still write regularly about all the goings-on here in Equestria. Should anything arise, please inform me of it too; we can face it together, as friends._

_Please give my warmest regards to the rest of the girls, and good luck with the upcoming exams._

_Your friend,_

_Twilight Sparkle_

It was a rather less helpful of a reply than what Sunset Shimmer had expected when she had written to her Equestrian friend on Saturday night.

_But then what were you expecting, Sunset?_ she thought bitterly as she got ready for school. _Princess Twilight to solve all your problems in one letter? That's not how things work._

While this kind of attitude was exactly what Sunset Shimmer had been trying to wean herself off of, in the back of her mind she blamed whoever had been in charge of Sunday afternoon's TV programming.

"Who in their right mind decides to air a Mare Do Well marathon during exam season?" she grumbled as she laced her boots.

She pulled out her phone and checked the time. Seven thirty-eight. She'd had closer calls than this before and it honestly wouldn't have bothered her overly much even if she had been late today…were it not for the fact that today was the first day of inspections by Mr. Wolfgang, and Sunset had a sneaking suspicion that he had his eye on her.

Sunset's stomach growled but she ignored it. She would just have to eat later. Right now, Canterlot High School's reputation was at stake, and she wasn't about to let her friends down.

* * *

><p>It was just nearing eight o'clock when Sunset jogged into view of CHS's front gates. She unwrapped the scarf from around her neck and slung it over her shoulder with her bag, reveling in the cold breeze that tickled her exposed neck. She hadn't realized that she'd been sweating so much, but for all the panting and wheezing she was making, the run had been worth it. She was right on time.<p>

Given the cold weather, Sunset hadn't expected to see anyone outside and she was not disappointed; the campus grounds were completely deserted as she advanced on the front doors.

And then, as though on some hidden cue, there was a tiny click and the tip of something cold and metallic pressed into the back of Sunset Shimmer's neck.

Sunset stopped dead in her tracks, her entire body stiffening. The object did not move, poking into the nape of her neck with an almost painful pressure.

Then a hand clapped down on her shoulder from behind and pulled, spinning her in a half-circle. Momentarily disoriented, Sunset's eyes regained focus on a gleaming silver point that was leveled at her nose like a sword, held in the grip of a familiar figure in a knee-length white coat.

Velvet Breeze's face was blank as she spun the thing around her fingers before offering it to Sunset again. "You dropped this."

Sunset rallied quickly, stepping backward and examining the object. It was a ballpoint pen, sleek and thin with a chrome casing. Her pen.

"T-Thanks." Sunset said shakily, taking it back and returning it to her jacket pocket.

Velvet shrugged and brushed past her. Sunset caught a whiff of something that smelled like antiseptic cream as she walked by.

The blue girl stopped at the front doors, cocking her head back to pin Sunset down with the same stare that she had been wearing on the day they had met. Once again, Sunset felt as though Velvet's eyes were boring through her like a laser beam, reading everything about her in that one look.

And then the moment passed as the bell rang and Velvet returned her attention to the swell of students behind the glass doors, leaving Sunset with a dry mouth and a sudden desire to be somewhere far away.

"We should hurry, Sunset Shimmer. Class is about to begin."

* * *

><p>It was clear that Mr. Wolfgang's arrival was a surprise not only to the student body of Canterlot High, but to the staff as well.<p>

Homeroom had been an…interesting affair. Mrs. Harshwhinny read off the roll at a volume that was almost indecently loud, making exaggerated check marks on her clipboard while shooting clandestine glances at Mr. Wolfgang. The inspector had parked himself in the corner of the room closest to the teacher's desk with a clipboard of his own, intermittently making notes presumably about Mrs. Harshwhinny's performance. Sunset had never seen her teacher so nervous, not even when she had been put in charge of the annual sporting fair last year.

Not that all her attention was focused on the adults in the room, though. In the reflection of her open pencil case, Sunset kept a close eye on Velvet Breeze, seated two rows behind to the left.

She hadn't removed her coat despite the temperate atmosphere of the classroom, and was slouched in her seat almost languidly as the lesson went on. Every now and then she would write in her notebook but otherwise there was nothing that suggested Velvet Breeze was anything but a bored student in a boring class.

A far cry from the girl who had nearly stabbed her with her own pen earlier that morning.

Sunset thought back to Twilight's letter. It _had_ said to keep a close eye on Velvet, but Sunset was starting to have misgivings about that particular piece of advice. Not that she doubted the Princess of Friendship; she just couldn't think of any reason to approach Velvet without seeming suspicious.

Still pondering this dilemma as Mrs. Harshwhinny dismissed the class, Sunset was suddenly struck by an idea. Maybe there_ was_something she could use to get close to Velvet.

"Thank you, Pinkie Pie." She said with a smile.

* * *

><p>Mr. Wolfgang was markedly absent from the rest of Sunset Shimmer's lessons up until lunch, something for which she was thankful. The review session from homeroom had been decidedly unhelpful as Mr. Wolfgang had butted in with questions every few minutes, completely killing the mood and flow of the class.<p>

The rest of Sunset's friends were seated at their usual table at the far end of the cafeteria, but Sunset didn't approach them right away. Instead, the amber skinned girl gave the lunchroom a perfunctory scan, searching for a lone figure in a white coat.

"Looking for someone?" a snide voice said behind Sunset.

Sunset turned around, almost hitting the speaker with her lunch tray. "Trixie. What do you want?"

Running a hand through her cornflower blue striped hair, Trixie smirked. "Why, nothing. As if Trixie would need the assistance of someone such as yourself. As a matter of fact, it seems as though it is you who needs the help of Trixie."

Loathe as she was to stroke Trixie's already inflated ego, Sunset had to admit she was right. She couldn't see Velvet anywhere in the cafeteria, and her lunch was getting cold.

"All right, maybe you can help me." Sunset sighed. "I'm looking for Velvet Breeze. You know, the new girl. She's wearing a-"

"A white coat, yes. Do you think Trixie is blind as well as desperate? Of course I know who the new transfer student is."

"Do you know where she is? I need to speak with her."

Trixie gave her chin a thoughtful stroke. "Admittedly, Trixie does not know where Velvet Breeze currently is. However, to compensate for not being able to provide you with the information you wanted, Trixie will instead provide you with a piece of gossip."

"The girl you are seeking, Velvet Breeze, we share the same chemistry class. Trixie sits next to her, and all through the class today she was asking Trixie questions. Questions about you."

"About me?" repeated Sunset, now giving Trixie her full attention.

"Indeed! She was most curious about you. Almost…licentiously so. Trixie found it very distracting."

Trixie began to walk away, but Sunset reached out and caught the magician's arm. "What kind of questions?"

Trixie pried Sunset's fingers off her jacket sleeve and gave her an aloof smile. "Trixie promised to give you a piece of gossip, and you have heard it. Trixie has more important things to do; eat, for one. Being the most talented girl in CHS requires keeping myself well nourished." A greedy look came into Trixie's eyes. "That is, unless you were willing to trade something to Trixie in exchange for my knowledge?"

Sunset frowned. "I'm not telling you the Rainbooms' next practice date, if that's what you want," she warned. The last time Trixie had found out about their band's practice times, she had come in and demanded to be given a spot on it.

"Nothing like that," Trixie huffed, "and Trixie is hurt that you would think someone such as myself would try the same trick twice."

"Then what do you want?" Sunset was running out of patience, not to mention hungry; having skipped breakfast, she had been looking forward to a nice, filling lunch.

After an agonizingly slow moment that was interrupted by the growl of Sunset's stomach, Trixie's face lit up. She eyed Sunset's lunch tray craftily.

"In exchange for this gossip," she declared, "The Great and Powerful Trixie desires none other than…your peanut butter crackers." Her demand made, Trixie held out her hand expectantly.

"Fine." Sunset deposited the foil package into Trixie's hand with rather more force than was necessary. "Now tell me what Velvet asked you."

Her mouth watering, Trixie stuck the peanut butter crackers into her pocket and gave Sunset another smirk. "Velvet Breeze asked Trixie all sorts of questions about you. But what stood out most to Trixie was how she kept asking if I knew your address."

"You didn't tell her, did you?" Sunset asked, aghast.

"Of course I didn't."

"Oh good-"

"But I did suggest that she ask Flash Sentry, what with him being your ex and all."

"You WHAT?!"

The words tore out of Sunset's lips louder than she intended, and rather more forcefully too; Trixie actually took a step back and those seated at nearby tables turned around to look for the source of the disturbance.

"And," said Sunset, trying to keep her voice down, "did Flash tell her my address?"

"H-How should I know?" Trixie said nervously. "Trixie hasn't seen either of them since!"

Not waiting to hear another word, Sunset abandoned her lunch tray on the closest table and was off like a shot. She had to find Flash before Velvet could get to him.

* * *

><p>Sunset found Flash Sentry sitting with Soarin and Spitfire in the gym, chatting about the results of last night's soccer game. Seeing her, Soarin gave Flash a nudge and a grin before scooching over to make room.<p>

"Hey there, Sunset." Flash said, treating her to a warm smile before he noticed her flushed and sweaty face. "What's happening?" he asked with a touch of concern.

"Did...Did you tell her?" Sunset panted, bending over and resting her hands on her knees.

Now Flash truly looked worried. "Did I tell who what?" He gently took Sunset by the arm and steered her over to the empty spot on the bench. "Is everything all right?"

"Give her a moment," Spitfire instructed sternly. "Just breathe."

Sunset gave Spitfire a grateful nod, taking in deep lungfuls of air as her heart rate settled back down. Realizing that she had been unconsciously leaning on Flash for support, Sunset blushed and adjusted herself.

Soarin held out a bottle of water, which Sunset politely waved away.

Spitfire tugged on her armband. "So Sunset," she coughed, "what's eating you?"

"Flash." Sunset said, unable to keep the urgency out of her voice. "I need to speak to you. Alone."

"Uh, sure, but what-"

"_Now_."

Flash was dragged aside, a pleading look on his face as he looked back at Soarin and Spitfire. Soarin shot him a thumbs up as Sunset pulled him into a storage closet and slammed the door.

After fumbling around for the light switch, Sunset let go of Flash's arm and exhaled heavily.

"Sorry about this, Flash. There's…something I need to ask you."

"Uh, sure." Confusion was written all over the boy's face. "But what's so secret that we need to be in a storeroom to talk about it?"

"You're in Trixie's chemistry class, right?" Sunset asked as she fixed her disheveled hair.

"Y-yeah."

"Do you know that girl who sits next to her in that class?"

Flash thought hard as he tried to recall the details, not an easy feat when most of his attention during chemistry was focused on the teacher. "Um, you're talking about the new girl, Velvet Wind or something?"

"Velvet Breeze," corrected Sunset. "Yes, I mean her. Has she, asked you any questions about me?"

"We haven't even spoken to each other. Why, is this about the Fall Formal? Because nobody here blames you for that anymore. You don't have to worry about us badmouthing you."

"No!" Sunset Shimmer aimed a kick at a nearby bucket of brooms in frustration.

"Then what is it? Please, Sunset," Flash pleaded, "I want to help you, but I can't unless you tell me the problem!"

_Same old Flash Sentry._ Sunset thought as she considered the best way to word her response. _Always ready to help, even if he doesn't know how. _She almost wished she had recognized how good a guy he had been while they were still together, only rescinding the thought for Twilight's sake. She'd had her chance and she'd messed up; the sooner Sunset moved on from that the better.

Realizing that Flash was still looking at her expectantly, Sunset cleared her throat. "Okay. Flash, I have reason to believe that Velvet Breeze might come looking for you later and ask you where I live." She looked Flash dead in the eye and crossed her arms. "You can't tell her."

Flash blinked. "Is that it?"

"What do you mean, 'is that it?'"

The blue haired boy turned his head to the side, keeping his eyes on Sunset. "Sunset Shimmer, I'm not just going to tell people your address just because they ask me," he said gently. "You don't think I'm that easy, do you?"

Feeling embarrassed, Sunset shook her head. Of course Flash wasn't going to just give away her address to any random person.

"Don't worry, Sunset. We're friends. We look out for each other, right?"

Sunset smiled, mirroring the one on Flash's face. "Right."

A loud growl broke the warm mood of the moment, causing Flash to look around in alarm and Sunset to wrap her arms around her abdomen.

"Sorry." Sunset felt heat rise up in her face as she straightened back up. "I skipped breakfast. And lunch."

"You mean you haven't eaten all day?" Flash looked borderline scandalized. When Sunset shook her head no, he put an arm firmly around her shoulder and marched them both out of the storage closet and toward the cafeteria. "You're not starving to death on my account. Let's see if they have any fish and chips left, shall we?"

* * *

><p><em>"<em>_You don't think I'm that easy, do you?"_

_"__We look out for each other."_

_"__We can face it together, as friends."_

Despite the freezing wind that assailed Sunset every step of the way home, she didn't feel any of it. Although none of her friends had been able to locate Velvet Breeze after lunch or during classes, Sunset was touched that they had gone and looked without even needing to ask. Flash had even bought her lunch, a gesture which had warmed her heart more than she would have cared to admit.

Bolstered by the warmth of friendship, Sunset Shimmer found herself back at her apartment sooner than she expected. Fishing out the key, she slowed her pace and looked up at the sky with a radiant smile on her face.

_It's good to have friends._

* * *

><p>From the top of a roof garden on the opposite side of the road, a pair of orange eyes observed as Sunset Shimmer entered her apartment complex and shut the door.<p>

Partially concealed behind a marble statue of a soaring dragon, Velvet Breeze thoughtfully lowered her hood and pushed aside a few stray strands of hair. Acquiring Sunset's address had been tougher than she had expected; while the girl called Trixie had suggested that she get it from Flash Sentry, the boy had been uncooperative.

That left only one course of action, which had been to tail Sunset back home via the rooftops. Her back still ached from her mishap on Friday and the bandages on her right arm were beginning to unravel by the time Sunset had arrived at her destination, but she had done it. Memorizing the nearby landmarks and the actual address itself, Velvet now had everything she needed.

Or she would have, were it not for that inspector.

There was something familiar about Mr. Wolfgang, something that rubbed Velvet the wrong way. She had surreptitiously taken photos of the man on her phone during the school day, and now that she knew where Sunset lived, the next order of business was a quick trip back to her place to send the pictures to her Mentor for identification.

Velvet Breeze yanked her hood back over her head and set off at a run, leaving behind a small cloud of dust.

_Just you wait, Sunset Shimmer. I'll be back for you._


	6. Chapter 5

It was just after two in the morning in the city of Trottingham. The world lay in quiet slumber, awaiting the first rays of the sun to bring warmth and light back to it again, and all was calm and serene. A thin dusting of snow had fallen during the night, giving the entire landscape an almost storybook appearance as it blended beautifully with the multicolored strings of lights that had been set up for the upcoming holiday. Even the increased presence of police officers on the streets couldn't dampen the overall aura of cheer and tranquility that pervaded the city.

High above Trottingham's central square, a lone figure stood vigil in the belfry of an old cathedral, her long coat flapping in the icy wind. Still as a statue, the only thing that betrayed the fact that she was still alive was the occasional cloud of condensation that escaped her mouth.

A scuffling noise from the edge of the belfry made her turn. Her deep purple eyes narrowed as she flexed her gloved hands, unfurling two hidden blades from within her coat sleeves.

A hand came up over the railing, then another, followed by a sweating orange face shrouded by a white hood. The first figure relaxed and allowed her blades to retract back into her coat.

"High Noon," she said with a cheeky grin as she helped pull the newcomer up. "What do you have for me?"

"Dewdrop," High Noon slumped against one of the tower supports, panting for breath. "Mentor wanted to give you this." Reaching into the depths of his coat, High Noon produced a small beige folder and handed it over.

Taking the file, Dewdrop lowered her hood and shook out a long mane of sea blue hair before giving her fellow Assassin a dazzling smile. "You came all this way just to give this to me? Oh, you shouldn't have!"

High Noon returned the smile with notably less teeth. While he trusted Dewdrop and respected her skills as an Assassin, he could never feel comfortable around her. Why this was, he couldn't quite place.

"Actually, I came here to pass on a message as well."

"Is that so?" Dewdrop asked pleasantly, thumbing through the file. "Well, you didn't have to run all the way out here to tell me; my phone would have sufficed." She walked slowly over to High Noon, her hips swaying gracefully in time with her footsteps. "Or were you just that eager to see me?" She placed a hand on High Noon's cheek.

"I-I… Mentor told me to come out here," stammered High Noon as his face turned five shades of red. "She said the exercise would do me good, and that there's been news that you need to hear in person."

"Aw, how nice of her," Dewdrop slid her hand down High Noon's cheek and onto his chest. She could feel his heart racing through all the layers of clothing. "And what does our esteemed Mentor have to tell me?"

High Noon took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. "She wanted me to tell you that Wolfgang's been spotted."

The change in Dewdrop's demeanor was immediate. The hand on High Noon's chest dropped to her side, and the half-lidded eyes sharpened into a concentrated gleam that could have cut glass. Dewdrop spun away from her fellow Assassin in a cloud of lavender-scented perfume, leaving High Noon feeling more than a touch shaken.

"Are you sure?" Dewdrop asked quietly, her voice carrying easily on the night breeze.

Nodding, High Noon retrieved another file from his coat. From it he took out a handful of photographs, taken by Velvet Breeze at school the very day before. "The novice in Canterlot sent these in to be verified. There's no doubt about it; it's Wolfgang."

Dewdrop snatched the photos from his hands. "And by the 'novice', you mean Velvet Breeze. She has a name. Use it." After looking through the snaps of Wolfgang with a nonchalant air, Dewdrop tossed them back to High Noon over her shoulder. "You can tell the Mentor that I'll be off to Fillydelphia immediately for the assignment. And then I'm going to Canterlot."

"But you can't!" High Noon protested. "This is the nov- Velvet's assignment, not yours; protocol says you have to return to the bureau after every mission. With so few of us left, it's important to-"

High Noon babbled on, but Dewdrop had long since stopped listening. She ran over the calculations in her head as she adjusted her coat, stashing her assignment inside a concealed pocket. If she timed it right... and her target was where the file said they would be… she might just be able to make it.

Striding confidently to the edge of the belfry, Dewdrop's progress was suddenly halted by a hand on her upper arm.

High Noon's eyes were full of fear as Dewdrop rounded on him, towering over him like a snow ghost. Although he was the elder of the two, there was no doubt that Dewdrop was more formidable. He almost let go, but his loyalty to the Creed kept his hand in place.

"Let me go," Dewdrop said frostily. Her free arm tensed up as she waited for her associate to comply.

But High Noon would not be cowed, not even by her. "No. Not unless you give me your word that you'll follow protocol and come back after Fillydelphia."

Dewdrop glared daggers at High Noon, who managed to keep the eye contact for almost a minute before glancing to the right. In that short moment of distraction, Dewdrop dropped to one knee and swept her leg in a horizontal arc, knocking High Noon over onto his back.

"Screw protocol."

Without waiting for High Noon to get back up, Dewdrop ran full pelt at the belfry railing, mounting it with one foot and leaping up and out into the snowy void. For a second she hung in the freezing air, perpendicular to the ground. Then she plunged down, flipping over once before landing with a faint_ whoomph_ in a snowy shrub.

From the top of the cathedral tower, High Noon looked on with despair as Dewdrop rolled out of the bushes and sprinted for a nearby shed where her motorbike was kept. A cry of frustration rose up in his chest and he punched the railing, splitting the skin on his knuckles.

High Noon could only watch helplessly as a dark motorcycle and its white-clad rider tore out of the shed a moment later, kicking up the snow as it raced out of Trottingham.

* * *

><p>Sunset Shimmer peered out through the tiny slits that were cut into the school locker. She stood stock still, with only her cyan eyes darting back and forth in the dark. Her left hand rested on the catch, keeping the locker from clicking shut while still giving the appearance that it was.<p>

She shifted her leg ever so slightly. Pins and needles were beginning to set in, but that was a small price to pay if her plan worked. She craned her neck to look down at her phone screen, squinting as the glare hit her eyes. Three minutes until lunch. With everyone else at study hall under the impression that she had gone to the nurse's office, Sunset had quickly set about finding the closest empty locker near the science lab and hidden herself inside as quietly as possible.

_This time,_ Sunset thought with determination, _I'll be the one doing the surprising._

She tucked her hand into her pocket where the party invitation was, slightly bent but all there. Initially her plan had been to hand it to Velvet Breeze at the start of homeroom, but in a stroke of bad luck, Velvet had arrived to class late and Mr. Wolfgang had decided to drop in as well. Not wanting to tarnish Mrs. Harshwhinny's reputation any more, she had wisely kept at her own desk and waited until the end of class, but somehow in the mad rush to get to the next period, the white coated girl had vanished again. It infuriated Sunset that Velvet was constantly just out of her reach, all the while being right in the same building.

With one last cursory glance out her peephole, Sunset silently lifted her hand off the catch and stepped out of the locker, making sure to shut it as soundlessly as possible. She crept over to the science lab door and peeked in.

Mr. Discord was sitting at his desk, building a house of cards out of post-it notes while his class was busy packing away their things, chatting quietly amongst themselves. She searched for Trixie; she had mentioned that Velvet sat next to her in class. All she had to do was find Trixie, and…

"Aha," Sunset smiled. There she was, sitting near the back of the class and zipping up her courier's bag and straightening her coat. Velvet's expression remained blank as Trixie said something that was clearly meant to be a joke, offering Sunset a brief moment of amusement as Trixie's face twitched with annoyance at the lack of positive feedback.

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of lunch period. The halls began to flood with students from classes all over campus, all united in the single-minded desire to fill their stomachs. However, the cafeteria was on the other side of the campus; there wasn't any chance of her losing sight of Velvet in a crowd here.

As the door to the science lab swung open and the class began to trickle out, Sunset Shimmer kept her eye out for Velvet's distinctive white coat.

For the smallest moment, a white sleeve flashed in her field of vision, and without thinking, Sunset's arm shot out, grabbing hold of the owner's wrist. Grinning triumphantly, Sunset pulled, looking right into the startled face of…

"Hey, what gives?" squeaked a cream colored girl in a white sweater.

"Bon Bon?" Sunset gasped in astonishment, letting go.

"Sunset Shimmer? What did you grab me for?"

"I-I-uh… nothing."

Observing Sunset's abashed expression for longer than was strictly needed, Bon Bon made a noise of disapproval in her throat and walked after Lyra, who had been watching the scene from the nearby water fountain.

"Sorry," muttered Sunset. The wind completely taken out of her sales, she turned to head over to the cafeteria and almost bumped into someone standing directly behind her.

"Gah!" exclaimed Sunset, leaping backward and banging her head on the open science lab door.

Velvet Breeze didn't seem at all affected. "Waiting for someone?" she asked disinterestedly.

_How did she manage to get past me?_ Sunset wondered to herself as she rubbed the back of her head. _Did she teleport or something?_

She looked back at Velvet, who had begun to walk away. Not willing to lose her again, Sunset Shimmer lunged forward and caught hold of Velvet's left arm.

She almost wished she hadn't. For the third time, Sunset found herself caught in those fiery orange spotlights that were Velvet Breeze's eyes. Her palms grew sweaty and she was forced to avert her gaze, picking the nearest possible item of interest: Velvet's hairclip.

"What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?" the blue girl asked, pulling her arm out of Sunset's grip, eyes flashing darkly.

Forcing her mouth to work, Sunset said, "I… um, wanted to give you this!" she plunged a hand into her pocket, bringing out the glittery pink envelope and presenting it to Velvet Breeze.

Taking the envelope, Velvet slipped it into her bag without a word and started off again, only to glare back at Sunset, who had taken hold of her arm again.

"What now?" Velvet asked, her expression growing irritated.

And Sunset Shimmer simply smiled nervously and said, "Would you… maybe like to join me for lunch?"

* * *

><p>Normally, Sunset wasn't too big of a fan of Taco Tuesday. The tortillas were usually soggy and the fillings were more often than not either too salty or not salty enough. Today, however, she felt she could make an exception if it meant not letting Velvet out of her sight. Both girls joined the queue for lunch with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Sunset helped herself to a taco and a bottle of fruit punch while Velvet skipped the main event, instead opting for a fruit salad and a can of iced coffee.<p>

The rest of the girls were already seated in the middle of eating by the time Sunset and Velvet got out of the lunch line, all of them looking more than a little surprised by the new arrival. Doing her best to act natural, Sunset took her usual place at the table and motioned for Velvet to sit down next to her.

"So…" Sunset said after taking a bite of her taco. "Velvet, these are my friends, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy," she pointed each one out in a clockwise direction. Everyone, this is Velvet Breeze, from my homeroom."

"Nice to meet you, Velvet!" Pinkie said, leaning forward to shake Velvet's hand vigorously.

Rarity followed suit. "Velvet, dear. So pleased to make your acquaintance. How are you finding Canterlot High so far?"

Velvet Breeze seemed to carefully consider the question before answering. "It's welcoming enough, I guess. Everyone seems so relaxed."

"Pfft," scoffed Rainbow Dash. "You kidding? Everyone here's been more wound up than ever with the midterms on their way. If this is relaxed for you, I'm not sure I'd want to go to your old school."

Putting a cube of melon in her mouth, Velvet shrugged. "It wasn't so bad."

"Was it hard, moving here from…" Fluttershy trailed off.

"Uh, Trottingham. I'm from Trottingham."

Sunset could have sworn she had heard a note of uncertainty in Velvet's voice in that statement, but before she could continue this line of thought, Rainbow Dash was speaking again.

"You mean, Trottingham, Trottingham? The place where there was a murder last week?"

"Yeah."

"Must have been a relief to get away from that," mused Applejack.

Shrugging noncommittally, Velvet replied, "I didn't really notice. Stuff like that's pretty common where I used to live."

Ignoring the stunned looks of everyone else around the table, Velvet proceeded to crack open her can of coffee and take a long drink.

"I didn't realize Trottingham was so dangerous," whispered Rarity.

"It's not," Velvet said, sounding utterly uninterested. "It's just a matter of not crossing the wrong people."

_She has good ears,_ Sunset noted. _How much else has she overheard?_

Rainbow Dash was looking uncomfortable, which was understandable; only last week she had been fretting over her friends' safety in Trottingham, and now here was someone who was actually from Trottingham, acting as though it was all part of everyday life.

"Aren't you worried about your friends and family there?" the athlete asked hotly. "The killers haven't been caught yet. They could still be out there!"

"They probably are," agreed Velvet. "Though just the same I'm not worried. They can take care of themselves."

"Riiiiiight," Pinkie managed, looking desperate to change the topic to something less morbid. "Uh, how are you getting on for the exams, Velvet? Must have been hard transferring in at the last minute."

"Exams?" For the first time since she had sat down, Velvet Breeze actually looked confused before comprehension dawned a second later. "Oh. Those. I, um, already took them back in Trottingham. My guardian wanted me to come here with a clean slate."

"Wow, you're lucky…"

Stealthily exiting the conversation, Sunset went about finishing her lunch, taking the change to check out their guest up close. The locks of teal and grey hair weren't exactly messy, but there was a certain lack of care about it just the same, as though Velvet hadn't brushed it in a long time. She didn't seem to be wearing any makeup besides a faint layer of eyeshadow that made her look as though she hadn't been sleeping well. The rest of her was unremarkable; there was the typical white hooded coat, the jeans and the running shoes.

The only other feature that stuck out to Sunset was a thin ribbon of pale fabric that dangled just barely in view out of Velvet's right sleeve and the familiar smell of antiseptic cream. A bandage? Sunset couldn't recall it having been there on Friday, and her observation skills were pretty perceptive, honed sharp by years of studying magic. Out of nowhere, she was almost tempted to pull back the sleeve and see what Velvet was hiding, if only to gain some petty satisfaction for all the disappearing acts Velvet had put her through. But then her thoughts went back to Twilight's letter and the temptation passed.

Lost in her ruminations, Sunset jumped as the bell rang to signal the end of lunch period. One by one, the five others got up and disposed of their trash, leaving Velvet and Sunset alone.

_Okay. Time to get this out of the way._

"Say, Velvet," Sunset said casually. "You know, Trixie told me something interesting yesterday."

Velvet gave her a look, though this time without the eerie undertones that it usually carried. "Oh?"

"She said you wanted to know about me. Am I that interesting?" While she kept her face pleasant, Sunset's voice carried a wary undercurrent.

Velvet drained the last of her beverage. "What? Oh. That." She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It just felt like the right thing to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know." Again, the look of irritation. "Look, Sunset. We should really get to class. I hear the inspector will be in your next period. You should hurry."

Velvet swung her bag up over her shoulder, but Sunset wasn't about to give up that easily. She situated herself in Velvet's path, crossing her arms.

"Okay," Sunset said vehemently. "I don't know what kind of a school you used to go to before here, but at CHS, or heck, anywhere, if you want to know about someone, you ask the person you want to know about, not sneak around behind their back. Why do you care where I live?"

Velvet Breeze's eyes ignited with their trademark glare again, but Sunset forced herself to stare at the other girl's hairclip, waiting for the onslaught to subside.

Finally, Velvet relented, her eyes losing their heated edge. "I don't. It's who else might care that's the issue. That answer your question?"

"What?" spluttered Sunset. "That doesn't answer anything! Tell me the truth, Velvet Breeze!"

Pushing past the fiery haired girl, Velvet simply ignored any further questions and opened the cafeteria door. Looking back, she muttered something in a low voice, just loud enough for Sunset to hear.

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted. Have a good day, Sunset Shimmer."

* * *

><p><em>Have a good day, Sunset Shimmer.<em>

The words reverberated in Sunset's head as she sat down on her bed and turned up the radiator. It was going to be a cold night, almost freezing, and she was wearing a sweater on top of her pajamas to ward of the evening chill.

The rest of the day after lunch had been terribly standard, with Mr. Wolfgang being the only varying factor in the monotony. The inspector had approached her after science class and asked to see her the next morning about her academic record. Sunset had reluctantly agreed, remembering the barely concealed look of despair Principal Celestia had worn back in The Silver Reins. No matter how much Principal Celestia tried to hide it, there was a lot riding on this inspection. If there was anything, anything at all that she could do to make sure the school passed with flying colors, Sunset was willing to do it, even if it meant a little dirt on her records.

Sunset opened her bedside cabinet and pulled out her magic journal. She lifted her pen and touched it to the paper, leaving a small black spot on the crisp white sheet.

_Dear Princess Twilight,_ she wrote. Then she stopped. There was so much to say, yet none of it seemed important enough to bother Princess Twilight about. The talk with Velvet at lunch had been strange, it was true, but there hadn't been any evidence to suggest that Velvet was anything more than a girl who had a few screws loose at worst, and at best was still adjusting to CHS.

And the meeting with Mr. Wolfgang tomorrow, well. She could already predict what Twilight would say about that. Sunset put pen to paper again and scrawled out,

_Dear Princess Twilight,_

_How are you doing? Things are getting pretty hectic over here with exams, but we're all managing. I think it might snow soon, so if you plan on coming over during the holidays, make sure you write ahead of time so we can come pick you up. Good luck with your royal duties, and tell Spike I said hi._

_Your friend,_

_Sunset Shimmer_

Capping her pen and putting both it and the journal away, Sunset Shimmer settled herself beneath the covers and rolled onto her side. As she gazed out the open window at the sky, Sunset sleepily thought back to the encounter at lunch. Velvet had seemed so indifferent, so apathetic to the situation in Trottingham that it had almost seemed unreal. Was she really so used to death and violence that it was no more shocking to her than a walk down the street? Or did she just not have anyone back in Trottingham who she cared enough about? Come to think of it, Velvet had only mentioned a guardian, not her parents.

_Maybe all Velvet needs,_ Sunset decided before sleep claimed her, _is a friend._

* * *

><p>The brick wall stood tall and daunting in the dappled moonlight. Velvet Breeze stood at its base, measuring, calculating. Still dressed in her school clothes, the dusky blue girl cinched the strap of her bag tight around her body and launched herself at the masonry, grunting as her hands found tiny protrusions in the brickwork.<p>

With the reassurance born of hundreds of hours of practice, Velvet swung her left arm upward, catching hold of an old pipe and hauling herself up the wall to a crumbling piece of ornamental awning. Once she was sure it was safe to put her weight on, Velvet shimmied along the strip of stone to an uneven patch of wall that looked like it had been recently repaired. Her prying fingers found another handhold and she continued her ascent, looking about every so often to make sure she was alone.

A short while later, Velvet Breeze's hands closed around the edge of the roof. Using every last ounce of strength left in her arms, she heaved her body up and over the top, rolling onto her back and panting with exertion.

After a while she sat up, letting her hood fall back. This rooftop was cluttered and messy, with air vents poking up through the concrete like weeds and an old garden that was dry and barren, littered with crumbling rocks. A couple of old deck chairs lay piled in a corner, the wood warped and stained with age.

Keeping crouched down, Velvet carefully navigated the expanse as she crept over to one particular side of the roof and looked down. The next apartment was a scant four meters away, separated by an alley.

And on that opposite wall, nearly at eye level, was Sunset Shimmer's bedroom window. The curtains were thrown wide open, offering Velvet a splendid view of Sunset's slumbering form. The gold skinned schoolgirl was curled up tight, the very picture of serenity.

It almost made Velvet feel guilty for what she was about to do.

She got to work, unclasping her bag and opening it with care, trying not to disturb the contents overmuch. First, she drew out a long length of rope, tying it around the rooftop fire escape's door handle. Looping it around the handle three times, Velvet tied it off around one of the air vents, knotting it twice to be sure it would hold.

Next, she selected the most intact of the deck chairs, dragging it quietly over to the rooftop's edge and setting it down at an angle at the wall, propped up at a slant against the brickwork. She meticulously cleaned up the loose gravel and debris around it until there was a rough square meter of clean concrete.

The chill was starting to set in by now, and Velvet would have been lying to herself if she had said that she wasn't looking forward to this last part. Her breath fanning out in snowy clouds, the white coated girl knelt down at her bag and drew out a large black canister, a bulging plastic bag, and finally, a long silver knife with a specially molded handle.

Velvet licked her lips unconsciously as she held the knife in front of her face, glancing past it at the sleeping Sunset. A flicker of disquiet stirred in the pit of her stomach. Poor Sunset. She hadn't really been that bad of a girl. Was it really the right thing, what she was about to do?

Catching sight of her own uncertain face in the blade's reflection, Velvet Breeze shook her head to clear it and steeled her resolve.

_No._ She thought._ It may not feel right, but it's the only thing I can do. Might as well get it over with._

And with that final thought, Velvet Breeze sat herself down behind the upturned lawn chair, reached into the plastic bag with her free hand, and drew out a plump, ripe mango.

Unable to keep the grin off her face any longer, Velvet wasted no time in cutting it in half and taking a huge bite, skin and all. Wiping the dribbles of juice off her chin, she set about finishing the rest of the slice, then the other half of the fruit.

Next she unscrewed the black canister, closing her eyes appreciatively as the thick, heady smell of black coffee permeated the night air. She helped herself to a sip and recapped the thermos to prevent heat loss.

It would be more than seven hours until the sun rose again, but Velvet wasn't too worried. After all, she still had plenty of mangoes.


	7. Chapter 6

Sunset's pen raced across her notepad as Mrs. Harshwhinny dictated the guidelines of the all-important essay questions. She hung on to every word, making sure to get it all down before class ended. Normally, Sunset would have trusted her brain to be able to keep track of all the information with only a few footnotes, but today was a special case.

As the ticking of the clock counted down to the moment when class would end, Sunset took out a folded sheet of paper from her jacket and nudged Applejack.

"Hey, AJ," she whispered. "Can you do me a favor? I need to go see Mr. Wolfgang after class and I might be a while, so can you give this to Mr. Bray for me?"

Applejack deftly accepted the note and put it inside her Stetson with a concerned look. "Yer not in trouble, are ya, Sunset?"

Sunset exhaled, puffing out her cheeks. "I honestly have no idea. The guy just found me after school yesterday and asked to see me about my school record or something."

"Uh-huh…" Applejack said, sounding thoughtful. "Do you know if he's asked to see anyone else like this?"

"Nope," Sunset said, purposefully sounding nonchalant to cover up the growing bundle of nerves that had been buzzing in her gut all morning. Like it or not, there was every chance that this meeting could make or break the inspector's assessment of CHS, and Sunset had spent most of the morning rehearsing and memorizing various points that she would be able to bring up in order to put less blame on Principal Celestia.

"Well," Applejack said conspiratorially, "I don't mean to start rumors, but I've been hearin' things about this Mr. Wolfgang."

Checking to see that Mrs. Harshwhinny wasn't looking at them, Sunset allowed herself to stop writing and give her friend a curious stare. "What kind of things?"

"I hear he locks his office when he's not in it. Like, even when he goes out to inspect classes, he keeps it locked."

"That's hardly proof of anything," Sunset said obstinately.

"An' fixing it with a fancy-schmancy combination lock isn't? 'Specially if he only plans to be here for a couple of weeks?"

"AJ, you're starting to sound like one of Rainbow Dash's adventure novels," Sunset chuckled, but Applejack didn't share in her levity. While the farm girl didn't voice any more conspiracy theories, she did part ways with Sunset with an uncharacteristically fretful expression on her face.

* * *

><p>Finding the office was a task in itself, as Sunset soon realized after her third trip past the water fountain. While Mr. Wolfgang had asked to see her, he hadn't told her where his office was. Given Canterlot High's impressive size for a high school, Sunset had anticipated the problem and had left forty minutes before the meeting was strictly meant to take place, but it was quickly becoming apparent that she had underestimated the challenge. She'd been wandering around the empty hallways for nearly half an hour and there was still no sign of her destination.<p>

Stopping outside the girl's restroom, Sunset allowed herself a moment of respite to mentally map out CHS and rule out areas that she had already been to.

"Already checked the library… teacher's lounge? Nah. How about… no, I was just there," Sunset rattled off more and more spots, her forehead beading with sweat as the map in her head grew more and more convoluted with every location she listed.

"This is impossible!" she groaned in defeat, her mental map shattering into a thousand pieces. "Why didn't I ask him yesterday?!"

A drop of sweat rolled into her eye, eliciting a growl of annoyance from the already frustrated Sunset. She swiped at it with her index finger, only for it to drag across the thin sheen of sweat that had gathered on her face during her school wide marathon.

Gingerly wiping her hand on the front of her jacket, she pushed open the door to the restroom. Well, if she was going to be late, she may as well be late but clean.

The lights were switched off, which was a bit strange. There was also a pungent chemical smell which Sunset chalked up to the janitor having just passed by. After a moment's fumbling, Sunset's hand found the light switch and depressed it.

Someone shrieked, startling Sunset and almost making her lose her balance as she stepped back onto a loose piece of paper towel.

"Velvet?" she said in disbelief.

"Sunset?" Velvet gasped back.

The blue girl was leaned up against the washbasins, looking more surprised that Sunset could ever remember seeing her. Velvet's right sleeve was rolled up to her shoulder, exposing a full length of her dusky blue arm to Sunset. It was lean and muscled, surprisingly so for someone who looked as though they spent more time writing in notebooks than playing a sport, but that wasn't what caught Sunset's attention.

What she couldn't tear her eyes off of was a ragged, four inch long gash that ran lengthwise down Velvet's forearm, standing out starkly against the skin like a crack in the flesh. It was clearly recent, because the pile of dirty bandages that lay coiled in a heap next to the sink were spattered here and there with the brown smudges of dried blood.

To her credit, Velvet didn't do anything to try and hide the injury, only pursed her lips and reached into her open bag, withdrawing a half-empty tube of antiseptic cream and a roll of clean bandages.

As she unscrewed the cap of the cream, Velvet inclined her head and said, "Hello, Sunset. Shouldn't you be in class?" She sounded slightly out of breath, as if she had been preparing to fight or flee. The girl squeezed the tube of cream with her left hand and watched as a long blob of white gel dropped onto the cut.

"Velvet?" Sunset said again, eyes wide and staring. "What-what happened to you?"

Velvet Breeze shrugged, working the cream into the wound using her fingertips with methodical care. "I fell." She said simply, not quite meeting Sunset's eyes.

"You fell," Sunset repeated. "Onto what, a nail?"

"Don't be silly, Sunset. Nails leave puncture wounds. This is a slash wound," she continued to rub cream into her arm, the corners of her mouth twitching whenever her fingers touched upon a sensitive area. "What are you doing out of class anyway? You look like you've just run a mile."

"I was looking for Mr. Wolfgang's office. You know, the inspector."

"Oh," Velvet frowned, puzzled. "Why?"

"He just wanted to talk to me about school stuff," Sunset replied. Situating herself next to Velvet, she turned on the faucet and splashed water on her face, washing away the sweat. Looking into the mirror, Sunset used a paper towel to wipe off any excess moisture, then dried her hands.

The relative silence was punctuated by Velvet's deep breathing as she put the cream away and unrolled the bandages, winding the white ribbons around her forearm and covering every inch of the cut. Taking one end of the wrapping in her free hand, she raised her arm to her face and ripped through the other end with her teeth before tying it off with some difficulty.

Having finished treating herself, the blue girl glanced over to Sunset, who had been watching from the sidelines. "I read the invitation, by the way. I wanted to say thank you for your kindness."

Sunset gave her a bright smile. "Hey, you're welcome. It was Pinkie Pie's idea though. I just delivered the envelope."

"I see. Well, give her my thanks as well," Velvet bundled up the dirty bandages and threw them into a side compartment on her bag.

"Don't you want to put those in the trash?" Sunset asked. The idea of someone carrying around a bunch of dirty, bloody bandages in their bag made her queasy.

Shaking her head, Velvet stowed away the rest of the medical supplies and washed her hands under the tap. "I'd prefer to dispose of it myself. Less hassle that way." She hitched her bag back over her shoulder, but the clasp caught on the bandages around her arm and pulled them loose, baring the grisly wound to the open air once more.

Fresh blood gleamed on her skin as Velvet dropped the bag and hissed in pain. Sunset rushed forward to help, but Velvet waved her away.

"Don't worry about it," she said through clenched teeth. "I've suffered worse." Her fingers fumbled around the loose end of the bandage, unable to get a grip on the dressing through the shaking. "Just… give me a moment…"

Sunset was having none of it. Squaring her shoulders, the amber skinned girl steered the weakly protesting Velvet back to the sinks and wound the gauze back around the cut, making sure to layer it twice over the site of the injury. Velvet watched in silence as Sunset tended to her arm, the trembling subsiding as the bandage was tied off securely at the wrist.

"There. That should hold up better," Sunset said, examining her handiwork. Velvet's arm was now enclosed in a neat sleeve of white linen, wrapped snugly but comfortably around the entire limb.

Velvet gingerly flexed her arm, testing the mobility.

"You didn't have to do that," She said eventually, giving Sunset an unreadable look, almost one of uncertainty. "But thank you."

"It's the least I could do for a friend," replied Sunset with an airy wave of her hand.

"A friend…" Velvet repeated as her brow furrowed. "Huh."

"I mean, if you want to be friends," Sunset backpedaled, anxious about stepping into unwarranted territory. "It's okay if you don't want to be."

"No, I mean, yes, I mean, I don't know," Velvet said, looking flustered. "I mean, are you okay with that? Me being your friend, I mean."

"Of course I'm okay with it. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Let's just say back where I come from, people aren't nearly as outgoing as you," Velvet explained darkly. "We have… trust issues."

Squashing down the feeling of apprehension that threatened to rise up, Sunset put on a lopsided smile and asked, "Where did you say you went to school before this?"

"A small place in Trottingham. Out of the way, with a few people."

"So why'd you come here then?" Sunset asked curiously. "Was it because of the murder?"

"No, no. I already told you I'm not afraid of that, nor is my guardian. She just thought it would be a good change of scenery; Canterlot is a much nicer looking place than Trottingham."

It seemed like a bit of a flimsy reason to Sunset, but she shelved that for later. "Yeah, I guess it does look nice." She agreed. "Did you… have many friends back in Trottingham?"

Unexpectedly, Velvet gave a bitter bark of laughter, placing both hands on the washbasin as if bracing herself. "Not many friends, no, but those I had I trusted with my life. Made it all the more hard when they had to go…" she finished in a whisper. Was it Sunset's imagination, or were Velvet's eyes, normally either piercing or emotionless, shimmering with tears? Before she could confirm her theory, Velvet blinked heavily, returning them to their traditional coolness. "I'm sorry, Sunset. I guess I'm just a little homesick."

After giving her head a shake, Velvet swallowed and slung her bag back onto her shoulder, taking care to avoid her arm before pulling the sleeve back down to cover the bandages.

"You mentioned you were looking for Wolfgang's office, right? Well, it's at the end of the east hallway, behind a door covered with posters."

In all honesty, Sunset had completely forgotten about her meeting with Mr. Wolfgang. "Oh. Thanks."

"You had better hurry," advised Velvet as she held the bathroom door open for Sunset. "It's almost time for your meeting, if I'm not mistaken."

Already plotting a course for the east hallway, Sunset thanked Velvet again and set off, but a hand around her arm halted her progress. Looking up, Sunset found herself locked in the gaze of Velvet's uncomfortable stare.

"Watch yourself around Wolfgang, Sunset. I doubt he's here for the reasons he says he is."

* * *

><p>Just as Velvet had predicted, there was an old door at the end of the east hallway, cleverly hidden by a combination of misplaced lockers and a flickering lightbulb. At first, she was hesitant to even go down to the end of the hallway; hallways with dim lights tended to bring up unpleasant memories. Nevertheless, Sunset soon found herself with her fist raised, ready to knock on the door.<p>

On the fourth knock, the doorknob jiggled and turned, the hinges on the door squeaking with age and disuse. As the door yawned open, Sunset's nose was beset by the smell of mildew and tobacco, not at all a pleasant bouquet. Resolving to breathe through her mouth, Sunset stepped into the office.

It was a tight, cramped place, dimly lit by fingers of sunlight that poked through the blinds of the window. A scratched and dented wooden desk dominated the space, a chair on each side. Filing cabinets, the only things that looked new, were pushed up against the left wall. With a growing sense of trepidation, Sunset noted that Applejack had been right to some degree; each cabinet was sealed shut with a heavy combination lock.

The man himself was seated behind the table, outlined in the dusty light. Without a word, Mr. Wolfgang gestured for Sunset to sit down. As she did so and her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Sunset was surprised to see that the man was wearing an absolutely revolting wool sweater with a strange badge on the breast. A curious ornament made of black crystal, it was fashioned in the shape of a cross and held in place with a bronze pin.

Unsure of what to say, Sunset sat in silence, awaiting the inspector to make the first move.

He didn't.

"Uh, so…" Sunset scratched at the back of her head. "You wanted to see me?"

Mr. Wolfgang seemed to give a tiny start, almost as though he had just noticed she was there.

"Oh, yes," Mr. Wolfgang reached under the table, bringing out a blue plastic file with Sunset's name on it. "I'm sure your time is as valuable as mine is, so I'll keep this short. I was looking through your academic record, as I did with the entire student body, and I happened upon an interesting little tidbit of information."

Reaching into the file, the inspector's fingertips pulled at the corner of a dull yellow sheet of paper. "You see, Principal Celestia was kind enough to supply me with a list of school events from the past few years, and I happened to notice that you seem to feature in quite a few of them. Quite prominently, in fact."

"Is… is that so?" Sunset gulped with a sinking feeling, not liking where this was going.

"Indeed. Although I would like to mention that while your academic record has more than a few smudges on it, your overall scholastic performance appears to have taken a climb in the most recent months. I'd say you've become quite the model student."

"Thank you, sir," said Sunset awkwardly. This wasn't at all what she'd been expecting.

"You're very welcome. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Principal Celestia herself thought very highly of you. Which brings me to my final point."

Steepling his fingers, Mr. Wolfgang leaned over the tabletop and gave Sunset what was probably meant to be a friendly smile, but the effect was rather spoiled by his icy cold eyes.

"You see, as an inspector from the board of education, it's important that I know anything and everything there is about a school in order to properly judge and rate it for my superiors. Unfortunately, your principal and vice principal haven't exactly been forthright with me on a few things."

"You see, I am still missing a lot of information on what exactly happened during the most recent Fall Formal and the musical showcase known as the Battle of the Bands. All my attempts to glean even the tiniest crumb of data on them have been rebuffed by Celestia and Luna." An unsavory gleam crept into the inspector's face. "It's almost as though the staff are hiding something from me. Something that they'd rather the board of education didn't know about."

Squirming inwardly, Sunset tried opening her mouth but no sound came out. After the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands, it had been an unspoken agreement amongst the students and staff of Canterlot High School that the magical details of both events be kept among those involved only. The student body had been very understanding about the whole thing, perhaps in part due to being exposed not once but twice to the magic of friendship.

Completely misreading her expression, Mr. Wolfgang nodded vigorously. "I know it's shocking. But you have to believe me when I say that if I don't get that information, and all of it, my report back to the board of education might put this school in a less than glowing light. And if the board of education's not satisfied, then…"

The threat hung in the air like the tobacco and mildew stink, hazy and stifling.

"Well, let's just say that Celestia and Luna might be prompted to take their talents elsewhere."

"Wh-what does this have to do with me?" Sunset stammered.

Wolfgang looked mildly surprised. "Why, I thought it fair to notify you of the stakes, just like I did Celestia and Luna, though I hope you'll be more reasonable than they were."

So that was it. As repulsive as the man's offer was, Sunset had no illusions about what would happen to CHS if word about its magical happenings got out.

"I don't know anything, sir."

"No, I didn't think so," Mr. Wolfgang shrugged good-naturedly. "I was just hoping that you might be able to talk some sense into your principal before the end of the school year… otherwise, I'm afraid my report might look rather harsh without that crucial information, if you know what I mean." He concluded with a smile that wouldn't have looked out of place on a church gargoyle.

Sunset's heart was beating into overdrive as she sat paralyzed in her chair. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to do something, to say something that would change Mr. Wolfgang's mind.

"I'm not sure they'll listen to me, Mr. Wolfgang," Sunset tried. "I mean, I could tell you about what happened during the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands."

"Mmm, I don't think so. Every student I've asked about it has given me a different version of it so far. Not that I doubt your honesty, of course, but I'd rather hear it from the people in charge." After brushing a speck of dust off his horrible sweater, Mr. Wolfgang put Sunset's file back into the cabinet and locked it. "I'm sure you'll know to do the right thing, Miss Shimmer. If you learn anything, anything at all, come and find me, and I'll revise my report straight away."

"Now if you'll excuse me, Miss Shimmer, I have a class to inspect. Why don't you head off to lunch early and think about it?"

And with that, Sunset was escorted out of the dingy office and into the dimly lit hallway. She was still standing there long after Mr. Wolfgang's footsteps had faded into the distance.

* * *

><p>Even after school, the inspector's words haunted Sunset as she sat down with her friends at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie was presently keeping the group entertained with a particularly colorful story about how she had once ended up nearly painting her room with frosting after she and Maud had gotten the paint cans mixed up. Judging by the copious amounts of guffawing and giggling that was going on, it must have been quite a good tale, but Sunset just wasn't in the mood.<p>

"Um, Sunset?" it was Fluttershy. "I don't mean to pry, but is something wrong?"

Looking up from her root beer float, Sunset Shimmer realized that all five of the other girls were regarding her with varying levels of concern.

"You've been staring at the table for the past fifteen minutes," Rarity added. "You're not ill, are you, darling?"

"Yeah! You totally missed the part where Maud tried making rock cakes with paint, only to realize that-" Pinkie's rambling was stoppered by Applejack putting her hand over the pink dynamo's mouth.

"We get the idea, Pinks. But seriously, Sunset. You've been looking a mite under the weather all afternoon. Is there anythin' we can help ya with?"

"As long as it's not poetry," Rainbow Dash interjected. "I don't think I can stand another mushy line about comparing someone to a warm summer's day."

"It's not poetry, Rainbow. Don't worry," Sunset laughed, the rest of the table laughing with her. "It's about the inspector. You guys know that he wanted to talk to me today, right?"

"Uh-huh. 'Bout your school report or something, right?"

"Yeah… turned out it wasn't about that." Egged on by the inquisitive faces of her friends, Sunset continued, "He wanted to talk about the Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands."

"Horseapples…" Rainbow Dash said under her breath. "Are you suspended or something?"

"No, but it might be easier if I was," reflected Sunset with an ironic grimace. "Mr. Wolfgang wants me to get Principal Celestia to tell him what really happened at both events."

"You mean, with all the magic and lasers and rainbows?"

"Yep."

"And Twilight?"

"Probably. And he said if he doesn't get the truth, the board of education is going to fire Principal Celestia!"

"How does this guy even know what the truth is? For all he knows, Principal Celestia's telling the truth already!" Rarely had they ever seen Pinkie Pie so distraught. She in particular held a special fondness for their spectral haired principal; no matter how big of a mess her parties and celebrations made, Celestia would only let her off with a friendly warning, something they were sure no other principal would have done.

"I don't know, Pinkie," Sunset said resignedly. "But what do I do? If I don't convince Principal Celestia to come clean with Mr. Wolfgang, she'll be replaced, and it'll be all my fault!" She buried her face in her palms, grinding her teeth at the impossible situation. "What am I going to do, girls?"

Sunset hadn't actually been expecting a response, so she was suitably surprised when she heard someone quietly say, "You could always kill him."

In a blur of gold and red hair, Sunset pulled her head up and joined everyone else in looking at who had spoken. It didn't take long. Seated alone at the booth right beside them was Velvet Breeze, staring at some kind of fruit pastry in her hand as though trying to mentally dissect it.

Rainbow Dash chuckled uncertainly. "Oh, hey, Velvet. Didn't see you there." She cleared her throat. "You know, if I didn't know better, I'd have said you just suggested that Sunset kill Mr. Wolfgang."

Velvet took a bite of her pastry with all the enthusiasm of someone about to have their wisdom teeth extracted. "No, you're completely right. That's exactly what I suggested." Upon seeing the aghast faces of the Rainbooms, the blue girl shrugged and added, "I'm joking, of course."

Everyone noticeably relaxed at that, though Sunset noticed that despite the claim that she had been jesting, Velvet did not crack even the slightest smile.

"Dude," Rainbow admonished. "Don't joke about things like that. I thought you were actually being serious!"

Velvet shrugged. "I've never been good at jokes. I didn't mean to alarm you." She took another bite. "So is this what you girls normally do after school?"

"Mm-hmm!" Pinkie confirmed, practically bouncing up and down with excitement. "Did Sunset give you your party invitation?"

"She did. I'll be there, unless something comes up."

Applejack adjusted her hat, treating Velvet to a thinly veiled squint. "'Comes up'? What, are you expecting somethin' weird to happen on Friday?"

Shrugging, Velvet finished off her pastry and dusted off her hands. "Not really, but you just never know." She glanced at her phone. "Sorry everyone, but I need to be heading back home to freshen up before heading to work. I didn't get much sleep last night, if you know what I mean. See you tomorrow."

Velvet Breeze waved goodbye to the gang and went over to the counter before exiting the café with a tall cup of coffee.

"Work? I didn't know Velvet had a job," Rainbow Dash remarked, looking ever so slightly impressed. "Maybe that's what she meant by something coming up."

"Maybe that's where the cut came from…" mused Sunset under her breath, frowning at the possibility of a job that might inflict such a wound on an employee.

Fluttershy looked at her amber skinner friend curiously. "What's that, Sunset?"

"Nothing…" While she trusted her friends implicitly, Sunset Shimmer didn't feel like sharing her encounter with Velvet in the bathroom with them just yet.

Craning her neck, Sunset followed Velvet's departure in the window until she was out of sight. There was too much she didn't know, but she was already formulating a plan to rectify that.


	8. Chapter 7

"Are you sure we should be doing this, Sunset?" Rainbow Dash asked as she pulled her track jacket closer around herself to trap the heat.

She and Sunset were seated on the steps of Canterlot High School's front entrance, watching as the campus gradually emptied, shivering as the wind tickled under their skirts. Sunset stared at her phone, seemingly transfixed by the small, glowing screen. In reality, the phone was on the home screen and Sunset was using the reflective surface to keep a close watch on everyone leaving the campus. Even now, she spied on Derpy as she waltzed down the road to her parents' car with a handful of textbooks.

Last night, Sunset had called Rainbow Dash up and asked, politely, to meet with her after school under the pretense of discussing Mr. Cranky Doodle's final assignment. Of course, the real reason had been anything but.

"I mean, it seems like kind of a creeper thing to do," Rainbow added as she popped a strip of gum into her mouth, amusing herself by blowing bubbles.

Sunset sighed. "Look. All I want to do is find out where Velvet Breeze works. I kind of want to earn a few extra bucks myself and maybe they're hiring."

"Ri-ight…" said Rainbow, not at all buying it. "Doesn't explain why you need me along."

"So I can use you as a reference, of course! Who wouldn't hire me after seeing how awesome of a friend you are?"

"Hmm… I _am_ pretty awesome," considered the rainbow haired girl as she put a finger on her chin. "But don't job interviews take a while to set up? And can't you just ask Velvet where she works? I think she'd tell you."

_Because I'm not entirely sure I can believe anything that comes out of that girl's mouth._ Sunset thought grimly. But outwardly, she shrugged and said, "I don't want her to think I'm taking advantage of her."

Turning away so she wouldn't have to see the dumbfounded look on her friend's face, Sunset went back to watching the school entrance on her phone just in time to see the very person she'd been watching for stride down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

"Dash," Sunset whispered, adding a nudge after. "Let's go."

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow Dash grabbed her bag and started after Sunset.

Keeping at least two people between them and Velvet, they were soon off campus and shuffling down the well-trodden path to Sugarcube Corner.

Sunset could have sworn that Velvet looked a little more tired today than usual. She hadn't been paying much attention during the school day, having been too caught up in her little scheme to care about anything else but now that she looked closely, the white coated girl seemed to be having trouble walking in a straight line, making sudden changes on her path to avoid oncoming pedestrians. Taking careful note of this, they continued on their way, trying to act as surreptitious as they could.

The door to the café required patrons to turn ninety degrees to open, so Sunset and Rainbow slowed their pace and hid behind a hair salon's sandwich board advertisement while Velvet stepped into the bakery.

Rainbow rubbed her hands together and blew on them. "You think we can go inside as well? I'm freezing."

"Shh!"

Sunset Shimmer risked a peek into the café window. Velvet Breeze was standing at the end of the line, leaning against the closest chair. Her hair was even more unkempt than normal, with tufts of teal and gray poking out at odd angles like she'd been wearing her hood up for hours. Her eyes, usually so alert and observant, were half-lidded and devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

Looking at her, Sunset felt a pang of pity for Velvet. It must have been hard, moving from such a faraway town to Canterlot, then working a job on top of school; if she found out that Sunset, the only person whom she had opened up to, was stalking her out of suspicion… well, Sunset didn't particularly want to follow that trail of thought. She almost would have turned around and gone home right there, except that the small, rational part of her mind would not allow it.

_You've come this far,_ Sunset rationalized. _You may as well see it through to the end._

"But it still feels wrong," she murmured. "This is the kind of thing the old me would do."

The little Sunset in her head put her hands on her hips. _Yeah, but it's for a good cause this time. It's not as though you're going to blackmail Velvet or anything, right?_

"N-No."

_Then stop pussyfooting around and get back to spying. You spend a good part of your study time planning this out, and by Celestia we are going to see this through!_

"Right!" Sunset agreed, pounding her fist into her palm with renewed vigor.

"Uh, Sunset?" Rainbow's voice came from a couple of paces away. "If you're done talking to yourself, Velvet's almost done buying her drink." She looked wistfully at the large coffee that was being poured behind the counter. "I hope she goes to work after this; I'm coming right back here to get me some hot chocolate."

However, much to the disappointment of Rainbow Dash, Velvet didn't head to work afterwards. Their quarry instead headed to the park nearby and sat down on a bench alone, drinking her coffee and stretching her denim clad legs. She gazed pensively out over the pond at the ducks that paddled across its mirror-smooth surface.

For an agonizing hour and a half, Sunset Shimmer and an increasingly irritated Rainbow Dash sat on their schoolbags behind a hedge, watching Velvet like hawks. She had finished the coffee in record time, the now-empty paper cup perched next to her on the bench. Now she sat slumped back in the chill wind, having seemingly zoned out.

"Come on…" groused Rainbow with a glance at her phone. "I'm missing the hockey game here."

Even Sunset Shimmer was starting to grow impatient. Had Velvet actually drifted off to sleep on a park bench? The sun was almost touching the horizon, and neither of them had any plans to be out after dark when the temperature took a dive.

Just as Sunset was about to turn and apologize to her friend for dragging them both out here for nothing, a shrill beeping noise rang from Velvet's direction. Both of them looked over just in time to see her pull out her phone, look at it, and visibly sigh. Standing up, Velvet tossed the empty cup into the trash and left the park, Sunset and Rainbow in tow.

* * *

><p>A short walk later, Sunset and Rainbow found themselves outside a CanterMart, a supermarket branch that had outlets all over the city.<p>

"She works here?" Sunset said, a little thrown. She hadn't been expecting such and ordinary place at all.

"Great," Rainbow Dash replied as a pair of snowflakes fell past her face. "Can I go home now?" She sounded absolutely bored, and not for the first time Sunset wondered if she should have brought along Fluttershy instead. Then again, she had every right to complain; Sunset knew that she would have felt the same in her shoes.

Putting on her most understanding face, the fiery haired girl patted Rainbow on the shoulder. "Look, I just need you to stay out here for about ten minutes more while I go on in and, uh, apply for the job. Then we're done, okay?"

"Ugh… okay. But hurry it up. My ears feel like they're going to drop off."

Rainbow Dash made herself comfortable under the awning of the CanterMart and Sunset hurried inside and into the aisles. Thankfully, the shoppers were few, due to it being a school night. Christmas music played gently over the speakers, competing with the overly bright tinsel for the most obnoxious feature of the supermarket.

Settling on a grid search pattern, Sunset swept the aisles for Velvet Breeze, trying not to allow 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' any quarter in her head. She forced herself to concentrate. Velvet had to be in here somewhere, and she scrutinized every uniformed employee she passed just in case, but there was no sign of the girl anywhere.

"Damn it," Sunset said, shaking her head in disbelief after her second round of the supermarket. As impossible as it was, Velvet Breeze had escaped her again.

Almost without meaning to, Sunset trod back to the confectionary aisle. She picked out two candy bars: one for her and one for Rainbow Dash as a way of apologizing for dragging her all the way out here for nothing. After a moment of consideration, she decided to buy some soda as well; they hadn't so much as had a sip of water since school had ended.

The aisle for beverages was located at the far end of the CanterMart, next to the small alcove that stocked medical supplies and first aid. Sunset ducked under a low-hanging wreath and ran into someone who had been concealed behind a plastic Christmas tree.

"Ow…"Sunset groaned, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. "Sorry, miss."

"Don't worry about it," mumbled Velvet Breeze as she went back to rearranging her basket.

Sunset did a double take. "V-Velvet?" she spluttered. "I was looking-I mean, fancy running into you here!"

Barely sparing Sunset a glance, Velvet continued to move cans of drink from the shelf to her basket. "Oh. Yeah. Fancy that," she blinked a couple of times and yawned. "Yeah," she said again.

Sunset peered into Velvet's shopping. "You, uh, like the taste of Red Bull, huh?" she ventured, pointing at the silver cans that took up almost half of the basket's volume.

Shrugging, Velvet put two more cans into her already hefty stash. "Not really. I just like to be prepared for those all-nighters, you know? Need to keep up my energy. Mmm…" she yawned once more, stretching her back at the same time.

"I know what you mean," Sunset nodded, picking up two bottles of Coke. "But once exams are over, we'll be able to catch up on all that lost sleep."

Velvet made a noncommittal noise and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably," she swayed on the spot and grabbed hold of the shelf to steady herself.

Out of impulse, Sunset reached out and put a hand on Velvet's shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" she asked, her face full of concern. "You seem really out of it."

"I'm fine," insisted Velvet, wearing a brave smile beneath her dark ringed eyes. "Just tired out from all the… studying. Lots to get ready for."

"Didn't you say you didn't have to take the exams?" Sunset asked, thinking back to their lunchtime conversation. Velvet seemed thrown for a moment, but recovered nearly as quickly.

"Oh, yeah, but I've got lots of other stuff to study as well. You know how it is," grinning a little too widely, the blue girl whipped out her phone and looked at it. "Oh, my. Is that the time already? I really need to hurry home and drop these off." She smiled apologetically. "I gotta run, Sunset. See you tomorrow."

Moving surprisingly fast for someone burdened by a full basket of energy drinks, Velvet strode off to the checkout with such speed she left a ghost image in Sunset's vision.

"Hey! Wait!" Sunset cried. She broke into a run after Velvet, but out of nowhere her shoe slipped on something and all she could see were stars.

"Oooh…" She moaned in pain, unconsciously massaging the back of her head and waiting for the ringing in her ears to go away. She looked at her feet, glaring at the sheet of paper that lay next to her left foot.

A sheet of paper that looked vaguely familiar.

Bending forward, Sunset Shimmer pinched the sheet in between her fingers and examined it. It was small and folded in half, and one edge was ragged like it had been torn from a notebook the size of the one Velvet Breeze was always scribbling in.

Her curiosity piqued, Sunset unfolded the note and read it.

_-Energy drink (canned)_

_-Coffee (instant and beans)_

_-Mangoes etc._

_-Bandages and dressing_

_-Liquid hand sanitizer _

_-Paper napkins_

_-Soap_

"It's a shopping list," Sunset said baldly. Then she noticed that a lot of the items on the list rang a bell. _Velvet's shopping list._ It was strange; just by reading this list, Sunset felt as though she had just received a glimpse into the other girl's life.

The bandages and hand sanitizer seemed self-explanatory; Sunset herself had seen enough to know why Velvet would need medical supplies like that. The mangoes and paper napkins seemed innocuous enough as well, but it was the energy drinks and coffee that brought Sunset's eyebrows together. This was the list of someone who didn't want to sleep, but from their entire day out, sleep was the first thing Sunset thought Velvet would want. The poor girl had looked absolutely smashed.

Dusting off her skirt and leggings, Sunset folded up the list and slipped it into her pocket. Velvet may have escaped, but today hadn't been a total failure.

"Well?" Rainbow said expectantly as Sunset left the CanterMart. "Did you get the job?"

"Er, no. They weren't hiring any more people."

"Better luck next time, eh?" Rainbow said resignedly. "It's snowing, by the way." She pointed up, where a steady stream of white, crystalline flakes wafted down onto their heads. "Maybe they'll even close CHS tomorrow!"

"I hope not; Pinkie would be pissed." Sunset laughed, unable to hide her excitement both at the snow and the prospect of the party tomorrow. Even back in Equestria, she had loved playing in the snow, and not even coming to this world had been able to curb her enthusiasm for subzero weather. Her good mood proved contagious, and Rainbow was soon laughing along with her.

"Thanks for sticking with me today, Rainbow. I'm sorry it was all for nothing."

Reaching over, the athlete ruffled Sunset's hair and smiled warmly. "Hey, what are friends for, right?"

Gratefully accepting the candy bar and Coke from Sunset, the two friends left the supermarket behind, disappearing into the falling flakes.

* * *

><p>Dewdrop braced herself against the air conditioner vent in a sprinter's crouch as she gauged the distance between her current location and her target destination.<p>

She had arrived in Fillydelphia the night before, pushing her bike to the limit through the driving snow. Then she had spent the night in one of the many safehouses that the Assassins kept across the land, studying the case file for her mission and seriously denting the garage door when she had kicked it out of frustration. And it didn't help that her phone was full of messages from her brotherhood telling her not to go to Canterlot.

Well, too bad for them. Nothing short of another Assassin coming to drag her back to Trottingham was going to stop her from heading to Canterlot after this. It put a sour taste in her mouth to disobey the Mentor, but once she had killed Wolfgang, Dewdrop knew she would be ready to accept any punishment the Mentor handed her. Perhaps she might even get away with it; how many Assassins of the past, both great and obscure, had begun their campaigns with revenge?

Eyeing the office building that was two floors shorter in height, Dewdrop went over the steps of her mission in her head for one final time like she always did. According to the file that High Noon had given her, this office complex was the main headquarters for the board of education in Fillydelphia, and the recently deceased Cobalt's usual workplace. The documents that Morning Blade and Frigid Night had stolen off his corpse had been undecipherable, even after two straight days of work.

With nowhere else to turn, the Mentor had sent Dewdrop to Cobalt's workplace to see if she could find the key to the coded papers. Her first stop had been Cobalt's home, but a thorough search of his flat had turned up empty. However, she did learn that as a member of the board of education, Cobalt had kept an office here in the heart of the city, and so she had made her way over to check it out.

With the moon rising high in the cloudy sky, Dewdrop pulled a scarf around her neck to keep out the cold and breathed in deep. Balancing her bag so it nestled comfortably on her lower back, the Assassin forced herself to focus, to calm down and concentrate.

Then, she ran. She ran like the wind, her climbing boots kicking up snow behind her as she sprinted toward the edge of the building and jumped, sailing over the gap between the high rises and into the icy night air. Dewdrop held her breath. She was ten stories up; if she missed by even a fraction, she would break her legs for sure.

And then her flight was over just as soon as it began, and the Assassin rolled on the office complex's rooftop, coming to a perfect three-point stop. She snapped her head up, scanning the concrete surface for any signs of security. When she found none, Dewdrop stealthily padded over to the fire escape. It was locked from the inside, but after a minute with a lockpick, the Assassin was in.

Dewdrop reached behind her back and pulled up her hood, carefully tucking back her long blue hair. Now, the real work began.

* * *

><p>Navigating fire escape stairs had been simple enough; there were no cameras at all in the dark concrete passageway and the thick, steel-bound doors muffled any sounds she might have made while descending to the fourth floor.<p>

After prying open the emergency exit and slipping into the maze of cubicles and glass walls, Dewdrop produced a small penlight. In its tiny circle of illumination, Dewdrop reached into her pocket and pulled out the key that she had procured from Cobalt's home.

"Office 453…" she breathed as she looked at the number engraved on the key. Looking at the closest door, the Assassin smiled. She was right outside Office 460. Office 453 couldn't be that far off.

Quiet as a church mouse, Dewdrop crouch-walked past the raised cubicle walls and felt her way along the wall as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. As it was, every shadow looked like a guard, and once a passing truck forced Dewdrop to freeze and unsheathe her blades before she realized that there was nothing to fear. This was an office building, not a military outpost she was infiltrating. There wouldn't be guards posted on every floor just waiting for someone to break in.

Buoyed by this information, Dewdrop allowed herself to stand up and walked quickly, but not hurriedly, to Office 453.

It, too, was locked, but the Assassin simply inserted the key and let herself in. Shutting the door behind her, Dewdrop drew the curtains and turned on the lights.

Cobalt's office was rather spacious for that of a simple inspector, more than ten meters square with a long maple desk that overlooked the street and a smaller one that was piled high with papers. Closer scrutiny revealed that they were all empty forms that had been there for days, collecting dust in the absence of the office's owner.

Dewdrop disregarded those and turned her attention to the maple desk. Unlike its peer, this desk was clean and sparsely decorated, with only a calendar and a name plate with Cobalt's name on it. There was also a large plasma monitor on the right end, connected to a powerful looking computer that rested in a specially made compartment. She would get to that later.

The drawers were locked as well. Dewdrop tried the key, but it didn't fit. Still, that was no problem. Pocketing the key, Dewdrop allowed her hidden blade to ease out from her sleeve. With another flick of the wrist, the normally straight blade pivoted on an axis and settled at a ninety degree angle in an icepick grip. Wielding her blade like a dagger now, Dewdrop dug it into the wood around the lock with fresh enthusiasm.

It took longer than she anticipated, but half an hour later, the drawer and the desk finally had enough space between them for Dewdrop to retract her weapon and smile to herself.

"Now, let's have a look at what you've been hiding, Cobalt," she said triumphantly and pulled out the drawer.

Almost immediately Dewdrop knew that she had done something wrong. As she pulled, the drawer caught on something that snapped, something with the thickness and tautness of a fishing line. A half second later, the stale, processed air was filled with the sound of sirens, and through the office window she saw the entire floor of the building light up.

"Damn."

This wasn't good. There was no doubt in her mind that soon the entire place would be swarming with law enforcement, something the Templars had on their side that the Assassins didn't. Given how close they were to the nearest police station, Dewdrop figured that she had about ten minutes to get everything done and get as far away from here as possible. Not a lot of time, even for one as skilled as her.

With the alarms blaring in her ears, the Assassin began to shuffle through the contents of the drawer, keeping as low as she could in case someone happened to look inside and see her there.

Dewdrop began to thumb through the drawer's papers, sorting them into two stacks: one for documents that might be important, and one for those that weren't. Given the daunting amount of files that were in here, it would be a miracle if she made it in time. No. She couldn't think like that, or she'd never make it for sure. All she had to do was concentrate on the task at hand, and everything would sort itself out-

The door to Office 453 slammed open with enough force to crack the glass in its window. Two identical and burly men dressed in the uniforms of security guards barreled inside the office, weapons raised. They spotted Dewdrop immediately and circled around, shutting the door and cutting off her only means of escape.

"E-Evening, gentlemen," Dewdrop greeted, standing up and smiling at them. "Could you show me the way to the bathroom? I really need to go."

"Huh? Bathroom?" asked the guard on the right, scratching his head with his nightstick. "I think it's down the hall, third door on the-"

"Shut up, Cinderblock!" the guard on the left barked. The other guard flinched, but settled back into a combat stance. "She's not looking for the bathroom, idiot! She's an intruder, and she's coming with us."

"Er, no, I'm not," objected Dewdrop.

"Yes," insisted the guard on the left as he drew a wicked looking combat knife from his belt. "You are. We can do this the easy way, or the-"

As his mouth formed the words 'hard way' the Assassin took that as her cue to vault over the desk and make a break for the door. The mission might be a bust, but if she didn't get out now there would be more to worry about than just two guys.

However, the guard with the nightstick had other ideas, and he stepped in front of the exit, cutting Dewdrop off before she even cleared half the room. At the same time, the second guard took two paces at her and slashed his knife. Dewdrop didn't flinch, continuing to run as fast as she could at the only way out.

Then at the last moment, she dropped to one knee.

Sliding forward under the deadly arc of the knife, Dewdrop grabbed the leg of the guard as she passed and pulled, toppling him onto his face. Dewdrop scrambled to her feet and swiveled on one foot just in time to block the second guard's nightstick. The impact jarred her right hand and it hurt, but the Assassin kneed the man in the gut, causing him to double over. Unsheathing her left hidden blade, she plunged it, deep, into the back of his now-exposed neck. Droplets of blood pattered across the floor and Dewdrop's face as she pushed her victim to the ground.

A blur of silver flashed toward Dewdrop and she threw herself aside as the first guard's knife nicked her hood. With a guttural growl, she lashed out with a back kick. Her boot connected with the security guard's chest and he flew backward into the small desk with a deafening crash, his knife dropping harmlessly to the carpet.

Dewdrop raced forward and scooped up the fallen weapon, spinning it in her grip as she ran. Leaping over the upturned table, she rammed the blade smoothly under the dazed guard's chin and into his jaw, twisting the hilt. The man spasmed for a moment, then collapsed backward, dead.

Breathing heavily, Dewdrop released the hilt and staggered away, glaring at the wall she was leaning against.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she hissed. Of course there was an alarm on the drawer, and judging by the distant peal of police sirens, these two goons weren't the only ones who had been alerted by the theft. There was no time to lose, but Dewdrop couldn't leave just yet.

Abandoning all pretense of stealth, the Assassin yanked out the entire drawer and began rifling through the contents. Anything that looked important was stuffed roughly into her bag, while the rest was thrown aside, where they drifted down like autumn leaves. After the drawer was empty, Dewdrop knelt down and pulled the computer tower from its alcove. Jamming a hidden blade into the plastic casing, she soon worked the thin wall of the computer away, exposing it innards.

The ever-approaching noise of footfalls brought sweat to Dewdrop's brow, but she was nearly done. Locating the hard drive was simple, as was removing it. A couple of wires cut, and the small silver box was dropped into a resealable bag and into her coat pocket. Now all she had to do was get out of there-

"Freeze!"

Dewdrop froze. Still half hidden behind the desk, she risked a glance up even as her hands fiddled with a complex series of catches on her wrists.

_Okay._ She thought, her brain whirring at top speed to make the best of the time she had. _Three guys, one exit, one gun._

The one who had shouted at her to freeze, a solidly built man, advanced on the crouched Assassin with his backup in tow. The others, a man and a woman, both armed with nightsticks and what appeared to be knuckle dusters, formed a rough semicircle around the desk.

The leader, who wore a protective vest and sunglasses over his dark uniform, aimed the gun and shouted, "I want you to stand up and put your hands in the air. No sudden moves, or I will shoot you."

Her face as blank as the walls, Dewdrop complied, standing with her feet apart and raising her arms on both sides of her head.

"Okay," she said, tilting her head toward him. "You got me."

The guardsman only grunted, not bothering to lower the gun. It was a small, but serious looking piece of machinery; Dewdrop had been on the wrong end of a gun several times before, but the one before her was obviously well cared for. The entire thing gleamed sleek and deadly in the man's rock-steady grip. It gave her an idea.

"You," he barked, addressing the woman, who was wearing a black baseball cap on top of her short violet hair. "Check those two."

The female security guard gave him a curt nod and bent down next to the guard who Dewdrop had stabbed in the back of the neck. Blood pooled around the body, already congealing at the edges and staining the floor a deep scarlet. She moved to examine the second, but shook her head after seeing the knife in the underside of his head. "Dead, sir." She reported, glaring at Dewdrop with newly ignited hatred.

The head guard's eyes narrowed and he took another step at Dewdrop. "So what are you here for, thief? Secrets? Information?" His eyes traveled across the papers that littered the floor, then to the open bag at Dewdrop's side. "You're not taking anything from this building. Fern."

The other man, a slightly built fellow with dull purple skin and closely cropped blue hair, unclasped a pair of handcuffs from his belt.

Dewdrop allowed a smile to creep into her alabaster face. "Actually." She said, shuffling away a tiny bit. "There is one thing I'm going to need to take before the night's done."

"Oh really…" the purple haired woman scoffed. "What do you plan to be taking with the three of us here, and only one of you?"

At that moment, the last guard, the man named Fern, chose to grab Dewdrop and move the handcuffs into locking position. Faster than blinking, Dewdrop seized him by the neck and swung him in front of her just in time to block two shots from the head guard that had been aimed at her. Fern's body jerked as the bullets drilled into his flesh and a fine mist of blood filled the air in front of them.

Dewdrop dived to the ground and back behind the desk as the gun roared again, a volley of gunfire splintering into the wall above her head. Reaching into her coat pocket, she drew out a spherical object the size of a golf ball and threw it at the female guard, looking away just as it burst into a corona of thick, white smoke.

As soon as she heard coughing, Dewdrop charged through the already thinning smokescreen and toward the nearest enemy. Her fingers splayed as her hidden blades extended and she rammed both of them savagely into the head guard's eyes, smiling as she felt them punch through into his brain. He screamed and thrashed, discharging his weapon uselessly into the air. She stabbed him again in the throat for good measure and pushed him to the ground, then swept up the pistol and fired it into the remaining guard's abdomen. Squeezing the trigger as fast as she could, Dewdrop put another bullet into the woman's chest, then a third between the eyes.

Dewdrop panted through clenched teeth, surveying the carnage around her with no small sense of satisfaction. Tucking the gun into her waistband, she retrieved her bag from behind the table and secured it on her back. She gave the room one last glance, feeling very much like an angel of death as thin rivulets of blood dripped off her leather coat and onto the already sullied carpet. She shook her head and smirked.

_They never learn._

The sound of police cars outside brought Dewdrop rudely back down to earth. There would be time to gloat later; right now she was still in the danger zone and this place was soon going to be swarming with cops. It was definitely time to go, but leaving via the ground floor like she had planned was clearly not going to work out. The roof? This office was the shortest building of its kind in the block, and while that had made it easy to get in, getting out from the rooftops was not going to be nearly as simple.

A police chopper swooped past the window and Dewdrop ducked behind a cubicle as its powerful searchlight illuminated the place she had just been standing.

Although the helicopter's presence would make her escape that much harder, the Assassin couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by the vehicle's presence. She wasn't _this_ important, was she?

Feeling very much like a character in the _Maretrix_, Dewdrop kept low and sprinted for the fire escape. She threw it open and looked down into the stairwell, cursing as she beheld the half dozen police officers charging up at her. Pulling back, Dewdrop grabbed the nearest office chair and wedged it under the handle. She looked to the elevator, but with a thrill of horror, the numbers were already climbing up from the ground floor.

"Come on, Dewdrop!" she said under her breath. She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate. "There's got to be a way out. There's just got to be." Seeing another security guard approaching, she slid under a desk and hid.

The guard had his flashlight out despite the fact that the entire floor was lit up like a Christmas tree, and he held his nightstick up near his face, ready to strike. Dewdrop held her breath as she saw his hobnailed boots pass by the desk she was hiding under.

When he didn't turn around, Dewdrop emerged and approached him at a run, punching him in the throat just as he wheeled around. The man's face turned purple as he dropped the nightstick and clutched his neck, but Dewdrop wasn't done yet. Hauling the helpless guard to his feet, she held him out in front of her like a human shield and drew the gun from her waistband.

As they approached the wide glass window, the security guard began to struggle. Dewdrop bashed him on the head with the butt of the gun. Then, taking a deep breath, she took aim and fired the remaining bullets at the window and leapt through the broken glass, keeping the guard's body in front of her the whole time.

The ground rushed up to meet them. Bracing herself against the body of her hostage, the Assassin felt a shudder course through her bones as the both of them smashed into the snowy concrete in the alley between the office and the block of flats next to it. Coughing, Dewdrop checked herself for any injuries, relieved to find none, which was more than could be said of the man she had used to cushion her fall.

Hurling the empty gun into a nearby dumpster, Dewdrop straightened her hood and stood up from the guard's body. Her bike was parked two blocks away; it would be a simple matter now to sneak through the back streets and get to it and then out of town. After that, she would have to lay low for a while until the whole thing simmered down before heading to either Canterlot or back to Trottingham.

With the wail of sirens still too close for comfort, Dewdrop cast one last look at the clamor she had made, then dashed off into the darkness.

* * *

><p>Author's Note<p>

There's fanart coming in for this fic, and you can see it on my FimFiction blog!


End file.
